Is Microsoft Trying to Step Away from Its Own Lumia Phone Brand?

We’ve known for a while that Microsoft is no longer planning to build new Lumia phones, and while the company has never confirmed this, a long-term strategy shared by people familiar with its plans and putting the Surface Phone at the core of everything pretty much made sense.

And now, Microsoft might be dropping some hints that the Lumia lineup is done, with the company said to be removing the Lumia phone category from its store page entirely.

MSPU writes that Microsoft has made some subtle changes to its official store page to no longer include a link to the Lumia phone lineup, replacing it with a link to the Education Store instead.

And yet, buying Lumia phones from Microsoft’s store is still possible, as the product category is placed under Devices in the top navigation bar, so it’s hard to say whether the company is indeed trying to leave the Lumia brand behind or not.

But no matter its plans, there’s always the confusion created by the whole secrecy that Microsoft seems to be embracing these days, so even if the company isn’t actually removing Lumia from its store page, without public confirmation, there’ll always be users afraid it might be happening.

No Lumia, just the Surface Phone

Previous reports on Microsoft’s mobile platforms indicated that the company would give up on the Lumia brand to focus exclusively on the Surface Phone, a flagship product due in the spring of 2017 and supposed to bring the best the company would have to offer at that point.

This way, Microsoft would be trying to adopt a strategy similar to the one it used for the Surface tablet lineup, building premium devices and letting the rest of the partners on the market in charge of expanding the model portfolio with products of all sizes and prices.

Microsoft is still supporting Windows 10 Mobile, and the company has said on several occasions that it’s working with partners to help them bring more devices to the market, but it has never mentioned anything regarding its own plans. Time will tell if phones still have a future in Microsoft’s vision, though, and the spring of 2017 will certainly be of huge interest in this regard.