MS is going to acquire Lumia brand from Nokia sans “Nokia” brand name!! It has licensed Nokia brand only for devices based on S40 and S30 operating systems. So, seems the thinking is that Lumia is sustainable without Nokia name prefixed before it. This is actually going to prove tough for MS. Reasons,
- Big chunk of Lumia buyers were those ones upgrading from featurephones and not to mention who was or which brand loyalty was responsible for this conversion.
- Nokia fans worldwide are already sad and this alienates most of them as future buyers. Word of mouth effect may be more ravaging. Anyways, other part is that MS fans will unite more behind the new MS Lumia phones.
But, this gives rise to an interesting possibility. If, MS is not making use of Nokia brand for smartphones, can Nokia use it for its own smartphones as the contract terms talk about mobile devices only, though we may be wrong here.
Microsoft has agreed to a 10 year license arrangement with Nokia to use the Nokia brand on current Mobile Phones products. Nokia will continue to own and maintain the Nokia brand. Under the terms of the transaction, Microsoft has agreed to a 10 year license arrangement with Nokia to use the Nokia brand on current and subsequently developed products based on the Series 30 and Series 40 operating systems. Upon the closing of the transaction, Nokia would be restricted from licensing the Nokia brand for use in connection with mobile device sales for 30 months and from using the Nokia brand on Nokia’s own mobile devices until December 31, 2015.
If yes, then Nokia running on Android may not be far away. If, no then let us see what the future holds.
Amid all this gloom there may be some silver lining in form of the newly minted “Advance technologies” division which is defined as,
Our Advanced Technologies business will build on several of Nokia’s current CTO and Intellectual Property Rights activities. Advanced Technologies will explore new business opportunities through advanced research, development and concept products in areas such as connectivity, sensing and material technologies, as well as web and cloud technologies. At the same time, Advanced Technologies plans to continue to build Nokia’s patent portfolio from this innovation and targets to expand its industry-leading technology licensing program, spanning technologies that enable mobility today and tomorrow.
Keywords here are patents, advanced research, new business opportunities, web and cloud technologies. We have seen some Nokia patents related to “Google glass” like display earlier and very recently as well. So, may be innovative Nokia will still live on and we may see many exciting things coming from Nokia in near future. After all this company has survived through tougher times and risen like a “Phoenix”.
