In the US, maybe. But in Europe, the Nokia brand is trusted. It was starting to be eroded in Europe, but a lot of people still trust the Nokia brand this side of the Atlantic.
Nokia is trusted in dumb phones, not in smartphones. Nokia can only sell low end models, sales in the high end are close to zero. The inexpensive low end smartphone is the replacement of the dumb phone, people buy those phones using "dumb phone logic".
Lately Nokia was trying Android, what tier did they choose? Low end, because is closer to their attributes.
Microsoft needs a new exciting brand that is associated to the high end. They have to launch this brand with cutting edge hardware to create hype, probably those rumored 3d gestures point in that direction. A flagship phone shares its halo with the devices in lower tiers, so It's the most important product, the media talks mostly of the flagship phone. For example, Surface is a total failure in sales, but the media talk a lot about the Surface, and that is creating the market for the Windows table. Without the Surface the Windows tablet would be dead.
What is the Nokia flagship phone?