Microsoft will end Windows Phone and Nokia branding

According to multiple reports, Microsoft intends to discontinue use of the Windows Phone and Nokia brands for its smartphones and mobile OS, all in hopes of simplifying its message.

Beginning this holiday season, Microsoft’s marketing campaigns will simply use the Windows banner to advertise handsets that run its operating system, while its own hardware will cease to use the Nokia brand following the acquisition of its device business (the Lumia name will remain).

GeeksOnGadgets was first to report the news, based on a leaked document, and The Verge has since confirmed the moves with its own Microsoft sources.

The most notable new flagship running the OS, the HTC One M8 for Windows, already very clearly positions it as a general Windows device, while The Verge reports that recent American commercials have cut the Windows Phone branding.

As Windows moves away from being a traditional PC brand and infiltrates more types of devices, it seems clear that Microsoft wants to stop segmenting its market and make it clear that Windows is Windows in all flavors, however you choose to use it.

Ultimately, it probably only means that instead of writing about “Windows Phone” the brand, we’ll be covering a “Windows phone” in the future. Semantics!

Source: The Verge, GeeksOnGadgets