Microsoft announced earlier today that it has purchased Nokia’s phone business for $7.17 billion. Under the deal, the Finnish company is going to retain its “Nokia” brand, while Microsoft gets “Asha” and “Lumia.” There will obviously be some changes down the road in future Nokia devices given the fact that it is now under new ownership, one thing we might see are shorter names. Outgoing Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has said that they can “do better for a consumer name.” They weren’t able to do “shorten” the names before due to the independent nature of the businesses.
Ballmer said that the company could come up with a better consumer name than the “Nokia Lumia Windows Phone 1020.” The fact is though, Nokia didn’t add “Windows Phone” in the moniker of its latest flagship device. HTC did with the HTC Windows Phone 8X/S. The “Nokia” brand probably won’t accompany future devices, Lumia might still be around though. Can we expect future naming schemes to be built around the Lumia brand? or perhaps Microsoft might come up with an entirely different naming scheme, it can’t be said for sure right now. Would we see the company’s “Surface” brand make an entry in smartphones? A Surface Phone does have a nice ring to it, wouldn’t you agree?