Microsoft was rumored to launch a smartphone of its own dubbed McLaren but the company never launched the handset. Now images of the canceled McLaren have emerged online, which shows what the phone may have looked like if launched.
Microsoft announced that it will acquire Nokia's mobile phone business and the deal completed in April 2014. Microsoft has introduced a number of Lumia smartphones since the acquisition of Nokia but the launch of McLaren was canceled.
Now the images of the canceled McLaren have been posted on Chinese website Baidu. The McLaren was supposed to be the successor of the Nokia Lumia 1020, which was launched in July 2013 and then subsequently released in September 2013. The Lumia 1020 touts top-end features and it came running on Windows 8.1 at launch.
The Lumia 1020 sports a 41 MP primary that was one of the best smartphone cameras available at that time. The handset also had Xenon and LED flash.
Being a successor to the Lumia 1020, the McLaren also dubbed Lumia 1030, was said to get a 50 MP rear-facing PureView camera with a fourth-generation short-pulse LED flash. The McLaren was also expected to get 3D Touch, which would allow users to operate live tiles without even touching the display of the phone.
The leaked images of McLaren do not reveal any other hardware details of the smartphone but it seems that the canceled Microsoft handset also had a hump at the back, similar to that found on the Lumia 1020.
Why Microsoft canceled developments on McLaren is unknown. The Lumia 1020 was an AT&T exclusive, which may have deterred many customers who did not want to switch carriers.
Moreover, the weak demand and lower than expected sales of the Lumia 1020 may have forced Microsoft to stop its work on the McLaren.
