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Microsoft has decided to sell its line of basic Nokia mobiles to FIH Mobile (a Foxconn subsidiary) for 350 million euros. The sale only affects the most basic terminals of the company "" which continued to retain the Nokia name "": that is, it does not affect Lumia devices . Microsoft will continue to develop its Windows 10 mobile operating system and will continue to work in collaboration with partners such as Alcatel, HP, Acer, VAIO and Trinity.
Following this agreement, around 4,500 current Microsoft employees will move to FIH Mobile, and the new company will also have the right to use the Nokia brand. The sale also establishes the right to use the software of these basic phones. In addition, technical and customer service will be incorporated directly into FIH Mobile for comprehensive management.
Fall in sales and change in Microsoft's strategy
The mobile business has not been Microsoft's strong suit in recent years: since July 2014, the company has almost abandoned the 40 series, Asha and Nokia X, and no new features or software updates have been added. in these product lines. The company has been focusing almost exclusively on the development and improvement of Windows Phone for some time, with the goal of attracting all former Symbian users to its new flagship line: Nokia Lumia smartphones.
In the last quarter, the company has sold 2.3 million Lumia phones worldwide, which represents a 73% drop compared to the sales figures corresponding to the same period of the previous year (when 8.6 million were sold devices). The sale of the basic line of phones could be one more strategy for Microsoft to focus even more efforts on improving its Nokia Lumia and introduce improvements that can re-secure sales.
Terry Myerson, head of Windows at Microsoft, has previously stated that Windows Phone is no longer the company's priority, but that Microsoft will continue to bet heavily on mobile telephony with a different strategy. They will focus on high-end smartphones (such as Lumia), and could also target two other market lines: low-cost devices and phones for the business sector.
The rumors point to another possible line for the future: the launch of the Surface Phone to take advantage of the good reception that the Surface brand is having in other areas (for example, the Surface Pro 4 computers). This shift in strategy could also mean abandoning the Lumia name for mobile devices, and we will have to wait a little longer to see the real impact of improvements to the Windows mobile operating system in a market increasingly dominated by systems iOS and Android.
