I think it sort of is (in people terms anyway) - the Nokia-branded featurephones part of the business has been spun out and sold to a new business made up of staff that came from Nokia > Microsoft mobile in the first place AIUI, and they are now collaborating with Foxconn to produce a new range of Nokia-branded smartphones and tablets.Alexia wrote:It is interesting to see Nokia (OK I know it's not THE Nokia) switch from Windows to Android though....
A bit of an odd move from MIcrosoft - I appreciate they acquired the business to develop the Lumia line and after writing most of the cost off they will want to see if they can claw anything back, but I would've thought the little Nokia feature phones remain a profitable part of the business - they require very little development and there is still clear demand for them.
Essentially they've kept the most difficult and struggling part of the business (both under MIcrosoft and under Nokia) whilst they've sold off a nice simple part of the business and allowed the purchaser to walk off with the brand name (which must still have some value attached to it) to knock out Android-based devices which are easily and readily accepted by the market and well supported by developers in contrast to the Lumia-branded Windows Mobile devices which they are struggling to create demand for.
Or perhaps they are pinning everything on this new 'superphone' that can run a full version of Windows?
I always thought the way Microsoft have been treated is very unfair. The worst thing Microsoft ever did was bundle a web browser and a media player with their operating system and this made them 'anticompetitive and monopolistic' which people are still banging on about after 20 years whilst you have Apple building more of a walled garden and closed platform than MIcrosoft ever did and you have Google seemingly on a quest to buy out the internet - but both are seen as cool friendly companies whilst Microsoft is the enemy. Ultimately, computing would never be what it is without Microsoft.MS are still seen as the band guys due to a lot of historic practices (which Google seem to be following)