14 DAY TRIAL // The recent changes that Microsoft made to its phone business have determined many people to predict the end of Windows Phone, pointing out that the Redmond-based tech giant has just made the first step towards the complete exit from the phone business.
But in a recent interview, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says exactly the opposite: all these changes would help the company increase its efforts in the mobile industry and bring more devices to the market.
And in case OEMs, who are Microsoft’s long-time partners, won’t build new phones running Windows 10 Mobile, the software giant will take care of that all by itself and build its own devices, Satya Nadella points out.
“If no OEM stands up to build Windows devices we'll build them. There will be Lumia devices. So I'm not afraid of saying, okay, it's all about the OEMs, or it's all about the ecosystem. It's about Windows. It is about the overall health of Windows and being grounded in any given day's reality, but having ambition of where the market is going versus being bound by current definitions,” he said.
New phones coming this year
Nadella hasn’t provided us with any specifics regarding the future Windows 10 Mobile lineup, but according to people close to the matter, the company is planning to release one or two phone models for each of the categories it wants to focus on: value devices, business handsets, and flagships.
The very first models are expected to arrive later this year together with Windows 10 Mobile, and many believe these will be the Lumia 940 and Lumia 940 XL.
Microsoft remains tight-lipped on these phones for the time being, but it’s pretty clear that, despite all these forecasts, Windows phones do have a future in Microsoft’s lineup. And no matter what some analysts claim, Windows 10 Mobile will hit the market later this year.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens after Windows 10 Mobile though, as Microsoft doesn’t seem to accept any other option than to make this new product successful.