14 DAY TRIAL // Rumor has it that Microsoft is planning to retire the Lumia brand for phones, and although the company has remained completely tight-lipped on such speculation until now, it drops all kinds of hints every once in a while, suggesting that this is indeed its intention.
This is exactly what happened today when the firm removed all Lumia phones from its UK store, leaving just two Windows smartphones available for purchase, both of them coming from third-party OEMs: the Acer Liquid Jade Primo and the HP Elite X3.
Windows phone fans in the United Kingdom who want to buy a Lumia from Microsoft can no longer do it, though there’s a good chance that third-party retailers still have some in stock.
At this point, it’s not known if and when Microsoft plans to do the same thing in other online stores across the globe, but it’s becoming more obvious that removing the Lumia brand altogether is part of the company’s future vision for Windows phones.
What about Microsoft’s new Windows phone?
And yet, we can’t help but wonder one thing: Microsoft is believed to be working on a new Windows phone that could launch this year, one running Windows 10 Mobile and based on the same approach as the existing models, with apps limited to the Store. If the Lumia brand is indeed discontinued, how is this new model going to be called?
Without a doubt, the most optimistic Windows phone fans will think this could be the beginning of the Surface phone lineup, though there’s not even a confirmation that Microsoft is indeed planning to move the phone business to the Surface unit in the first place.
In the meantime, we need to leave rumors behind and stick with what’s real: the Windows Phone platform is dropping every month and Microsoft has a major contribution to this, with decisions like pulling Lumia phones from stores clearly fueling the uncertainty.