After sending a mail to its employees and announcing a restructuring and change in focus of its Smartphone hardware business Microsoft has sent a mail to its OEM partners (via WC) to assuage their concerns. The mail tells that their (OEM partners’) investment is not at risk and that Microsoft will keep developing Windows 10 Mobile OS and also supporting existing and upcoming OEM’s Windows 10 Mobile devices.
I want to assure you that your investment in Windows phones is not at risk. The mobility of the Windows 10 experience remains core to our More Personal Computing ambition. We will continue to support and update the Lumia devices that are currently in the market, and the development of Windows 10 phones by OEMs, such as HP, Acer, Alcatel, VAIO, and Trinity; as well as develop great new devices. We’ll continue to adapt Windows 10 for small screens. We’ll continue to invest in key areas – security, management, and Continuum capabilities – that we know are important to commercial accounts and to consumers who want greater productivity. And we’ll help drive demand for Lumia devices.
There is another important take-away from the memo send to partners and it seems Microsoft will not focus anymore on emerging markets like India and Brazil with its own hardware and the focus markets will be US, Europe and Australia. This is in addition to change of focus to enterprise and consumers who would like Microsoft’s innovation as announced earlier.
According to an internal memo from Microsoft sent to partners and obtained by Windows Central, Microsoft will concentrate on these “core markets” for its smartphone business: US, UK, France, Germany, Poland, Australia, and Western Europe (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland)
We can confirm the Microsoft’s change in focus as far as India is concerned with recent disinterest shown by Microsoft in promoting the existing Lumia devices. We know it already that Microsoft is aiming to bring its flagship Surface Phone somewhere around Spring 2017 and will ditch budget-end of smartphone market. This renewed focus on selected markets adds another angle and it is not good news for Lumia fans in India and Brazil. While OEM Partners may be asked to cater to the needs of Windows 10 Mobile fans in India and Brazil by bringing low-end budget devices, we haven’t really seen lots of activity by OEMs in past, so it is really up in the air for now.
