"650" the last lumia??!

[Mad Cabbie]

Pretty sure I heard it was the last Lumia for the year.

Kind of a big difference.

And so is " pretty sure I heard", and " I definitely heard ". Lol

 

[Mad Cabbie]

From what I understand, MS is essentially ceeding the hardware lead they inherited from Nokia. By selling fewer Lumias, it opens the market up for stronger offerings and more visibility for 3rd party OEMs, meaning more sales and a stronger platform. Ultimately MS does not want to sell phones, it wants to see its OS on other manufacturers devices akin to how google handles android.

We will see other phones from MS. However for big W10 releases we should now turn our attention to the big OEMs. Samsung, HP, HTC, LG, ZTE Huawei, Alcatel and Acer. All rumored to be producing new hardware and flagship level material.

Samsung may start offering W10 phones under its Galaxy brand this year, as it already does with its tablets.

I hope they release fewer devices. When you look over the past couple of years, it has been a nightmare. Where do you start?

435, 535, 635 ( two variants! ), 640, 640xl, the 7 series, the 8 series, the 1320, the 1520 and the icon / 930!! Where do you start!!

A friend of mine works for Carphone Warehouse in the UK and openly admitted to me that, if a potential customer walked in for a cheap low end handset, the MS display was just confusing. In the end, they would just plump for the brand they knew of, invariably samsung. To shift devices the 435 was up for ?20. A third of the price of the samsung, and probably the better option! When they thinned out their stock, they had the sensible option of a low, mid and top end option. They sold no end of 435's, the 640's were starting to pick up, only the 930 remained stagnant.

So, IMHO, a low / mid / flagship is plenty, especially when you look at the confusion for the buyer over the past couple of years. Add in that some were labelled nokia and some MS!

It makes sense, as mentioned previously, it allows for OEM's to plug any potential gaps. Maybe a brand like Vaio, who have a reputation for quality laptops , with Sony, may stand out. Acer are a world known brand as well, so maybe the buying public will be comfortable with them as well...

Fingers crossed

 

[Elisamuel Figueroa]

I believe MS should only produce 2 high-end and 2 mid-end (regular Size and XL), leaving space for other EOMs to produce low-end to high-end. Let's remember that on Android is very confusing to choose since they have over 30+ EOMs making phones, I believe during 2013-2015 Nokia and Microsoft needed to cover the gap of lack phones since the other EOMs abandoned ship. But now I believe Microsoft is trying to convince companies to develop W10M by cutting the Lumia series to only 9xx, 6xx and 5xx, MS like many have said is trying to distance themselves from the Nokia strategy. But I agree that they need to change the Lumia brand. Nokia is planning to come back to the smartphone game, so people may buy a new Nokia phone thinking is a windows phone or Lumia. Also all the people I know when I say have a windows phone looks at me like "Are they still making those?" So a new OS name is what they need as a disguise, everyone knows the surface runs windows, "surface phone" sounds great as the new name for windows phone or W10M. Like the iPhone and iPad both run iOS but different versions, Imagine if all windows developers update their apps to Universal, it will be pretty much how things are on iOS. Let's think outside the box.

 

[Mad Cabbie]

IMHO, the gaps left by just 3 w10 devices was probably a carrot, hung for other manufacturers (OEM's) to fill. I personally think that MS have these devices to demonstrate the capability of the software, hence why us nutjobs on insider, suffer the bugs etc. When people say things are dead, I whole heartedly disagree. I believe MSFT are taking a step back and returning to their particular forte, software development, and w10m is being set up for the long game. They should drop the Windows Phone / Windows Mobile, and just stick to a tag line / brand that people know, love and sometimes hate in equal measures. The Lumia brand should be taken to a field and shot as well. Windows 10 should be in the title, i.e. Windows 10 mobile or device etc. The numbering system, whilst making sense, isn't exactly sexy. Even iPhone 6 doesn't sound particularly nice. The difference is they keep it up for the brand and recognition. You have the Sony Z series. Ohh yeah, sounds cool, and 007 has one! Samsung have the Galaxy. The tag has been around for ages, yet Galaxy is, once again recognisable to pretty much every one. So, yeah ditch the phone / Lumia. Despite how much we try to inform others, there is an old saying that says 's*** sticks!'

Finally, you have the networks and retailers. As mentioned in another post, my friend works for CPW. A nice 3ft by 2ft display, in the middle of android to the left and Samsung / iPhone to the right. A prominent position, BUT, when asked about continuum, they have no facility to demonstrate it!! They know their onions, but joe public loses interest and buys android or iPhone.

Hopefully a rebrand or OEM's spending more than ?5 on marketing might help!

 

[Bobvfr]

Not just because me and Mad Cabbie are in the same business, but I agree with him, Nokia flush with MS funding for a few years went beserk making phone after phone variations, we discussed this in depth last year and the bulk of opinion agreed that there were far to many Lumia's particularly at the lower end, MS took over but it then took all of this time to put the brakes on.

I think they should produce Lumia's, and if they insist on using the numbering system, a 5XX, a 7XX and a 9XX should be where they are heading for, in other words a budget phone, a business or mid range and then a top of the line. I think the current line up of a 550 and a 650 is to close together and do they really need two top ends, I would have gone for just one top end and sized it in the middle of the 950 and XL and then if they need or want to a Surface phone, but if people like HP are already developing "Super" phones is there a need.

 

[Steve Adams]

I would think that moving forward, Microsoft will use Lumia for their mid range line and surface for their high end phones. Before I get ragged on calling the 950/xl mid range. if that is a mid range phone...we are in for great times ahead! I think MS should have 3 devices with 2 variations of each.

650/xl, 950/xl, and surface/"xl". that would give buyers choice of what they need without being confusing. Please MS, listen to this.

 

[OrangeBerry02]

Nokia must be feeling pleased with itself for having got out of a very heavy (almost dangerous) commitment to Windows Phone so comparatively well.

One can understand the caution of other manufacturers.