Nokia Vs Microsoft

Nokia, at a time, was the most popular mobile device in the world. Their rugged hardware was the favorite of many especially when many could not afford a mobile phone. It was a household name and the pride of many. Best of all was the fact that it was easy to use.

Going down the years, their market share grew smaller due to innovative companies like Samsung, apple and htc. They relied on their Symbian OS for a long time until their alliance with Microsoft. Their last device which was the Nokia 808 pure view, didn’t attract the desired attention. The question is, “was it a conspiracy for Microsoft to buy Nokia when things were going well for them recently?”

In 2013, Nokia Lumia sales was the highest in the middle east so far according to reports beating Apple and Android Devices. From July to September 2013, they accounted for about 90 percent sales with 8 million Lumia devices sold which is not impressive on it’s own compared to the 9 million devices (Iphone 5s and 5c) sold by Apple during the weekend launch, but it is still impressive as compared to other brands like htc who were not even making profits either on android or windows platforms. The Head of Nokia handset and service units division Stephen Elop who was formerly in Microsoft moved back to Microsoft to head the same unit after the acquisition deal was sealed.

The question now is “what will be the names on our ‘Microsoft’ devices? Is it Microsoft surface or Surface Lumia or just Lumia. For me, I think Nokia went in the right direction with the choice of Lumia as a brand name. Another part, I was not comfortable with, was the acquisition cost of Nokia’s Handset division by Microsoft which fell at $7.2billion dollars which is one of the lowest acquisitions so far. Google acquired Motorola mobility for $12.5billion. Microsoft acquired Skype for $8.5billion. I don’t think Nokia is that cheap with the current success in their mobile hardware division.

Good news for prospective Lumia owners is that more beautiful Lumia devices are still been produced, so don’t expect a drastic change in the name from ‘Lumia’ to ‘Microsoft’ or ‘Surface’. Their latest is the Lumia 1520 and 1320 Phablets with 20 megapixels coming soon.