'Microsoft Lumia' Will Replace the Nokia Brand

jones_supa writes The last emblems of Nokia are being removed from Microsoft products. "Microsoft Lumia" is the new brand name that takes their place. The name change follows a slow transition from Nokia.com over to Microsoft's new mobile site, and Nokia France will be the first of many countries that adopt "Microsoft Lumia" for its Facebook, Twitter, and other social media accounts. Microsoft has confirmed to The Verge that other countries will follow the rebranding steps in the coming weeks. Nokia itself continues as a reborn company focusing on mapping and network infrastructure services.

Comments

Recognition

[msobkow]

Nokia has more brand name recognition, so of course we won't use that.

Idjits.

Re:Recognition

[sunderland56]

It's not exactly the name recognition, it's the name's reputation.

Nokia: well recognized, well liked brand with positive reception everywhere.

Microsoft: well recognized, universally hated brand, regular finalist in "most hated company" competitions.

Marketing 101 says: they chose the wrong name.

Re:Recognition

[binarylarry]

Does this make anyone feel bad for Steve Ballmer?

The whole time I've assumed he was the reason Microsoft seemed to be run by idiots.

But with this and their other recent moves, Microsoft seems to be run by a gaggle of idiots. A flock even.

Re:Recognition

[i kan reed]

The only error in your post is that most people can't bring themselves to care enough about Microsoft anymore to go as far as hating them. Say what you want about 95 through early XP era blue-screens, they were recognizable.

Now, though, windows is basically synonymous with white collar office work, and not a lot else. A lot of people don't even use it at home for internet browsing anymore.

Re:Recognition

[msobkow]

Then they were fools. The whole point of buying an established company is to buy the brand as well as the factories. Anyone can build a factory, usually for no more than it would cost to buy someone else out.

Re:Recognition

[pushing-robot]

The correct word is "bungle". A bungle of idiots.

Coincidentally, the same collective noun is used for managers. Microsoft seems to have both in great abundance, as well as a muddle of analysts and a quandary of advisors.

Brilliant!

[ArhcAngel]

Throw away a brand synonymous with durability and communication and replace it with...ZUNE II !
What could possibly go wrong?

Re:Brilliant!

[dontbemad]

I'm fairly certain that in the layman's mind, that same "durability and communication" that the brand name Nokia implies conjures images of the old Nokia brick phones. While those certainly were durable and useful, they are also very archaic. Nokia might represent good, durable technology, but that is meaningless when the general public perceives it as "old". In an age where 2 years between new phones begins to sound like an eternity, a phone manufacturer would probably do well not to let the public still think of its main product as a monochrome, extremely basic cellphone from the early 2000s.

Re:Not a very exciting name

[CRCulver]

In a number of European languages, "lumi-" has resonances of "light, brightness". Perhaps the name won over a then-Finnish company for its association with snow (Finnish lumi), another bright, pure thing. You can always find something in a product name to critique, and I don't think that one guy saying "Well, it rhyhmes with gloom" (a word rarely used outside of native-speaker English anyway) would have been much dissuasion.

Re:Not a very exciting name

[Anonymous Coward]

In Spanish "lumia" is an old word for prostitute. It is not of common use but it shows like that in the dictionary: http://lema.rae.es/drae/?val=lumia

Re:Which no one will buy

[Uecker]

The numbers seem to imply other wise. Profitable with increasing sales before and loss-making and collapsing sales after declaring Symbian dead and switching to Windows Phone. In don't doubt that there was infighting which delayed things a lot, but the awesome N9 and its brother (with keyboard) were ready before Lumia - even when it took a long time, they had their own modern smartphone OS which got a lot of praise. And then there was always Android as an option. Switching to Windows Phone which was already loosing on the market was simply the most stupid thing to do.