Microsoft’s CEO this week decided to drop the company’s Android-based phone lineup

Jul 19, 2014 12:01 GMT  ·  By

It was a really tough week for everyone working at Microsoft and for around 18,000 employees it was probably one of those moments when you feel betrayed and want to start over again and find a company that respects your skills and pays you accordingly.

But leaving all these job cuts aside, which according to Microsoft’s executives had to be made because the company cannot cope with such a large headcount, the company also took some decisions which are actually demonstrating that the existing leadership team has the right vision.

In addition to changes that are affecting basically every single division within the company, including Windows and Xbox, Satya Nadella and Stepen Elop also announced that Microsoft’s Android phone lineup would no longer exist.

In other words, Nokia X, the Android-powered device which already received a second-generation model, would be killed, with Microsoft planning to move it to Windows Phone.

Although some people, especially those who have already purchased a Nokia X, might not find such news too exciting, it’s actually the right decision for a company that spends millions of dollars trying to make its very own mobile operating system successful.

It’s a well-known fact that Microsoft is aggressively investing in Windows Phone and the last 12 months are living proof that the company isn’t willing to stop. Not now and not anytime soon.

At this point, Windows Phone is becoming a serious rival for Android, with Microsoft and Nokia selling affordable phones that run well and offer users the essential apps, as well as new technologies, such as Cortana, which allow them to perform specific tasks a lot easier. Investments in Windows Phones continue and Microsoft is set to deliver even more exciting features, which does nothing more than to attract more buyers on certain markets.

There’s no doubt, however, that dropping the Android phone lineup was the right decision for Microsoft and Satya Nadella really deserves his own share of praises for this move. You need courage to do this, and Satya once again proves that he has what it takes to be the leader of the biggest software company in the world.

Microsoft needs its very own identity and investing in products that run Android when the company is also developing its own mobile operating system is clearly a bad decision. At the same time, Microsoft needs as many devices running Windows Phone as possible and why not trying to reach this goal with its product lineup?

Android phones are pretty much everywhere you look these days, and bringing one more model to these plethora of devices isn’t clearly the best choice for a company that wants its very own product, which is actually competing with Android in almost every single aspect, to gain ground.

It’s a matter of business and no matter how you look at it, Microsoft doesn’t need one more Android smartphone on the market.

And to be honest, I’ve already tried the first-generation Nokia X and wasn’t impressed at all. That might upset some owners, but the phone was laggy, it had a low-quality display and was insanely slow. All of these clearly place it below Windows Phone when it comes to a phone that could help you send and receive emails, post on Twitter, browse the web at occasional times, chat with friends and WhatsApp and do other typical tasks on a phone.

But beyond all these reasons why Microsoft doesn’t need an Android phone, it all comes down to the identity I was talking about.

Microsoft is the maker of Windows, the operating system that’s powering 90 percent of the desktop computers across the world and 14 percent of all devices out there. Many laughed at this 14 percent share, but that’s not at all disappointing. The only problem for Microsoft is that the smartphone and tablet businesses took off lately and the company was late to these parties, but it’s now investing aggressively to recover and win back some users.

Windows is already installed on lots of devices, with PCs, tablets, and smartphones among the most obvious ones. The company has already explained that it would continue investments in its operating system to expand its reach and improve its features in order to better match the devices that it’s running on, so PCs, smartphones, and tablets could soon come with enhanced functionality that would help better perform certain tasks.

And since it makes Windows, Microsoft needs Windows running everywhere. That’s actually Satya’s plan. Windows everywhere. And it makes sense. But an Android phone made by Microsoft surely doesn’t.