Microsoft to drop Nokia brand says executive

[webfact]

Microsoft to drop Nokia brand says executive

San Francisco - Microsoft is to drop the Nokia brand in favour of an as yet undecided new name for its smartphone division, Stephen Elop, former Nokia head and now the Executive Vice President of Microsoft's Devices Group said Monday.

Elop was speaking in an online forum just three days after Microsoft completed its 7-billion-dollar takeover of the smartphone company, which is the main manufacturer of phones running Microsoft’s Windows Phone software.

Elop also discounted rumours that the new brand name for Nokia devices would be Microsoft Mobile, as had been widely reported in the tech press in the days leading up to the closure of the deal.

"Microsoft Mobile Oy is a legal construct that was created to facilitate the merger," Elop said. "It is not a brand that will be seen by consumers. The Nokia brand is available to Microsoft to use for its mobile phones products for a period of time, but Nokia as a brand will not be used for long going forward for smartphones."

"Work is underway to select the go forward smartphone brand," he added.

Elop, 50, was a top executive at Microsoft before moving to Nokia in 2010 and aligning it with Microsoft as a strategy to help it stem its market share loss to Apple and phones running Google’s Android operating system.

But he denied suggestions that he had somehow maneuvered the situation to the benefit of Microsoft at the expense of Nokia. "I have only ever worked on behalf of and for the benefit of Nokia shareholders while at Nokia," Elop said. "Additionally, all fundamental business and strategy decisions were made with the support and approval of the Nokia board of directors, of which I was a member."


-- The Nation 2014-04-29

[tingtongteesood]

Bad move. Does Nokia have some kind of bad image ? I thought they had a good reputation personally. Hard to start a new brand, better to stick with the well known name.

[3NUMBAS]

bad idea, in europe they have a strong brand image .yanks dont know whats going on outside their backyard ,shame

[impulse]

If I were them, I'd keep the Nokia brand and set up a parallel line under another brand name. Like Toyota and Lexus.

And I'd put the Yanks I know up against any business people in the world, for "what we know outside of our back yard".

Quick- name a European Superpower. Not from 200 years ago- from this century.

Also, please explain how a "know-nothing" Yank company like Microsoft bought a former European powerhouse like Nokia- basically for scrap value?

Edited April 29, 2014 by impulse

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I think it's an odd move, considering the brand name appeal Nokia has internationally, which far exceeds anything Microsoft has ever had in the mobile space.

And MS doesn't have a stellar track record with either mobiles (recall the cancelled Kin) or brand naming (recall the Skydrive mess).

But I think the reason may be that MS only has a limited period of years, under its agreement, before the remaining independent Nokia company can resume producing its own smartphones. Given that, MS probably feels that they need to get out of the Nokia brand name over a period of time.

Yet for Elop to broach the issue now.... very odd....

[Ulic]

Keep the Nokia brand for Europe, re-brand it for the rest of the world.

[pendingo]

Bad idea to remove the Nokia badge.

No doubt MS will mess things up in the usual way.

Look at the latest security issue with Explorer 6 to Explorer 11.

Every month or so my laptop has to work overtime with all the updating and patches it has to perform.

[Mrjlh]

bad idea, in europe they have a strong brand image .yanks dont know whats going on outside their backyard ,shame

You all are quick to put us "yanks" down but "Stephen Elop" is Canadian, so is he a Yank? .....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Elop.

And Microsoft is a worldwide company of many different nationalities running it. As far as Microsoft goes, the leaders are all idiots and there are just too many examples to list to prove it.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Here's the background I was thinking of above, in terms of how quickly Nokia can, if it wants to, get back into the smartphones business using its own brand name. It's the start of 2016.

An under examined aspect of the deal was a line item that Nokia revealed earlier this year:

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.

Hence while Nokia will for now focus on its global communications network hardware offerings, its licensing deals, and its software services such as HERE, it could make a return to the smartphone market in 2016. This creates the fascinating possibility that both Microsoft and Nokia could peddle products with different features but identical brand names ("Nokia") for as long as eight years of Microsoft's ten year licensing pact.

http://www.dailytech.com/Microsoft+Now+Officially+Owns+Nokia+Devices/article34793.htm

Edited April 29, 2014 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[Jonmarleesco]

It was only a matter of time.

[HooHaa]

microsoft will promptly mismanage the whole enterprise into the ground.

its what they do best.

[Carmine6]

Not too surprising for a company like Microsoft. The rate for licensing a brand name can be pretty high. Say it is 5%, which is probably low for a brand like Nokia. That comes right off the top or in a per unit fee. On a $700 phone, wholesale would be maybe $350, which would be $17.50. Since Microsoft already has its own brand, they could instead spend that $35 per unit on other things like their new brand. That's particularly true where Nokia isn't such a strong brand anymore.

If they had outright bought the entire Nokia company, name included, then it wouldn't cost anything more to use it. But they didn't buy the name. So they'll pay something for the time period they use the name, but will cut that expense off by launching under their own brand.

Edit. Was using retail price versus wholesale.

Edited April 29, 2014 by Carmine6

[liddelljohn]

Very stupid Mr Elop ,, Nokia brand has massive support in Asia, Africa, india and Europe ,Nokia only lost market share because they did not develop Smart phones early enough , and also did not go with Android ,,,,they still make awesome phones and quality too

[jacko45k]

bad idea, in europe they have a strong brand image .yanks dont know whats going on outside their backyard ,shame

You all are quick to put us "yanks" down but "Stephen Elop" is Canadian, so is he a Yank? .....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Elop.

And Microsoft is a worldwide company of many different nationalities running it. As far as Microsoft goes, the leaders are all idiots and there are just too many examples to list to prove it.

I have to agree, Windows, Apple, McD, Starbucks and Boeing and many others all seem to do well don't they.

Nokia has lost it's edge and its good name is less so these days, certainly in my home where 2 are owned with a slight rancour!

As to a name change, tell that to Lenovo.

[Lemmus]

Just love all the MS bashers here ...jealous much?

For those fanboys who missed it, Nokia no longer makes mobile phones ...Microsoft does, excellent ones ...using both the MS Phone OS and the Android OS ...and the MS VP in charge of producing them now is the same guy who led Nokia during their engineering and production of them ...and almost all of the former Nokia engineering, production, and marketing staff and facilities remain at his disposal ...he runs it, not the Xbox team, not the Microsoft Mobile Phone team ...and he is the man responsible for making a success of it ...no one else.

In support of that MS has finally recognized that they can't charge a premium fee for an OS that is competing head on in the low-mid range market with Google's Android ...but if they do make the MS OS available to low-end producers, the significant ease of use advantages of its OS over Android will eventually drive the market to them ...assuming MS is able to maintain that advantage.

AS for naming, I'm certain that MS didn't pay for the Nokia brand name for the limited future just to throw it away immediately ...in markets where the Nokia brand still has clout, the low end Android based Nokias will continue to compete head-on with the newly dominant brands ...in markets where the Nokia Lumia smartphones have achieved significant penetration, I would expect MS to drop the Nokia brand and sell the Lumia brand as its own ...and for MS to drastically increase the Lumia brand marketing in those markets that Nokia was unable to afford the marketing investment to make it competitive with mid-to-high end Android and Apple products. How long that will take is pure conjecture but it will happen ...MS has bet a substantial portion of its future on success in the mobile market and moved Ballmer out of the way to get there.

As for the bashers, enjoy yourselves while you can. MS missed the boat on the mobile market and plenty are writing its obituary ...just like they did when MS missed the boat on the internet browser market ...remember that?

As for me I worked a couple military contracts in Thailand during 'nam and afterwards and started vacationing there while working other overseas contracts ...married a Thai lady in '79 ...still married and get back there often ...I've tracked this forum for quite a while now ever since I retired but never felt it worth my time to contribute ...but the Apple and Linus fanboys have always stirred my embers ...so here I am. Bash away ...just try to keep the rectal-cranial inversion factor to reasonable limits.

[stoli]

Very stupid Mr Elop ,, Nokia brand has massive support in Asia, Africa, india and Europe ,Nokia only lost market share because they did not develop Smart phones early enough , and also did not go with Android ,,,,they still make awesome phones and quality too

Since Nokia is now dead, from all practical uses, where exactly is this "massive support". Oh, you own one? Sorry. Now I understand........

[Jacey101]

Microsoft Mobile is a multinational mobile phone and mobile computing device manufacturing company headquartered in Espoo, Finland,and a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft.Its principal activity is the design,development,manufacture and distribution of mobile phones,smartphones and tablet computers and related accessories. 70-410 Exam