UPDATED Sept. 19, 2014: With the release of new mobile handsets running on Windows 8.1 such as the Cherry Mobile Alpha Luxe and Play and the HTC One (M8), one can notice that they refer to the new gizmos as Windows, sans the Phone from the branding.
This seems to be the case for the Redmond giant, as a leaked official internal document details the company’s plans to not only remove the ‘Windows Phone’ branding on all partner manufacturer handsets, but as well as the ‘Nokia’ branding on their now-owned mobile phones, keeping the ‘Lumia’ as their primary brand alive.
This move by Microsoft is a step towards unifying all their Windows operating systems (which includes Desktop, RT and Phone) under one ecosystem and branding in their forthcoming huge OS update.
UPDATE: Microsoft has finally pulled the plug on Nokia’s website and started to redirect its users to Microsoft’s. This is the start of many changes to come to the Redmond Giant’s handset division. A new Microsoft Devices website is launching today, diverting Nokia’s web traffic.
While Microsoft has stopped using the Nokia brand for the mobile handsets, the Finnish company says that they are still alive. In a blog post entitled “Nokia is still alive,” Nokia EVP Barry Finch stressed out that only the mobile handset division has been sold onto Microsoft, and there are still different services Nokia has to offer. For now, they will focus on infrastructure telecommunications, and mapping and location services.
agree @meme
Cherry Mobile’s Alpha Luxe Still have “Windows Phone” on its back.
Actually, it’s not a smart move (not yet anyway). Until they can make all Windows app work on Windows phone and vice versa, it’s confusing for even a computer savvy person like me (case in point, I have to recheck multiple sites to make sure Cherrymobile Alpha Morph has the desktop Windows not Windows Phone Windows). Both being at version 8.1 make it worse, and not mentioning the RT variants even. If they could unify everything and make it a code once, run anywhere (like Java?), then everything will be peachier. Then again, that’s what the news item above stated, let’s hope Windows 9 will be the OS that rule them all.
Wow haba ng comment… affected much??? :)
Unbelievably bobo comment coming from a self-proclaimed computer savvy.
Forgive them if they didnt get your point. I agree with you.
@William C
Have you heard of Universal Apps? Developers can now recompile same sourcecode for both WP8.1, Windows, Xbox with little modification. From what ive read, microsoft is merging both WinRT and WP. Desktop, Phone, Xbox are using the same core and slowly trying to shorten the gap of supported API’s in each platforms.