Leaked documents suggest that Microsoft will be ditching the Nokia brand and starting to brand mobile devices as Windows devices instead.
The documents say that the Nokia brand will give way to the "Microsoft" brand and that "Windows Phone" will simply become "Windows."
Not only that, but the Windows logo will now be used on Microsoft's mobile devices as the home button, essentially reducing fragmentation across Microsoft's phone efforts.
"As part of our planned transition, we will drop the manufacturer names from product references during the Holiday campaign," say the documents.
What this means is that Microsoft is planning on blurring the line between desktop and mobile operating systems, even planning on naming the two the same thing. This shows the transition into the "One Windows" philosophy that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has commented on in the past. Microsoft may simply ax Windows Phone entirely and instead run the same operating system on both mobile and desktop devices.
Microsoft's new Nokia Lumia 830 and Lumia 730 may actually be the last devices attached to the Nokia brand name.
A move away from Windows Phone makes sense for Microsoft, for a number of reasons. Saying that a "Windows phone runs Windows Phone" was always rather confusing.
Stephen Elop, who is the head of Microsoft's Mobile Devices Group and the former CEO of Nokia, has alluded to the transition in the past.
"It will not be 'Nokia Lumia 1020 with Windows Phone on the AT&T LTE network,' " said Elop in an interview. "Too many words! That somehow doesn't roll off the tongue."
Windows Phone is certainly a growing platform, although it seems as though it will be playing catch-up to Android and Apple devices for a while. Windows Phone devices currently account for around 2.5 percent of the smartphone market worldwide, with Android making up 84.7 percent and the iPhone accounting for 11.7 percent.
Instead of the Nokia brand, it seems as though Microsoft will now be using the "Lumia" brand to market its mobile devices.
"Nokia as a brand will not be used for long going forward for smartphones," continued Elop. "Work is underway to select the go-forward smartphone brand."
Microsoft acquired the Nokia brand in April for over $7.2 billion. After the buyout, Microsoft renamed the brand to Microsoft Mobile, continuing to use the Nokia brand to market its devices. This, however, was never going to be permanent.
It is rumored that Microsoft will not only use the Lumia name for its mobile devices, but also for its Surface tablets going forward.
