Category: Nokia

The rise, fall, death and now resurrection of Nokia is nearing completion.  Finland based HMD announced today that they have secured the licensing rights to the Nokia brand for the next 10 years and that a new, Android powered smartphone will be hitting the marking in the first half of 2017.  It marks a pretty staggering comeback, if only in name, to a brand that has been in the mobile phone space for decades.  After the company was bought by Microsoft and then subsequently scuttled in the debacle that has been Windows Phone, it appeared that the brand would be gone forever.

HMD is making sure that doesn’t happen.  Comprised of several former Nokia employees, the company will be manufacturing phones under the name of Nokia that will include both feature phones (which are available now) as well as Android-based Smartphones.

Nokia has pushed out a significant map update to their HERE maps app for both Android and Windows Phone.  The update does not effect the app already installed on your Windows Phone but instead is a map update which you do from within the app itself.  According to the Nokia HERE maps blog, the update is a global update to new countries, water features and public transportation maps.

HERE maps for Windows Phone – Free – Download Now

Today Microsoft announced a new feature phone, the Nokia 215.  This Internet ready phone is a new design and aimed at connecting more people than ever before with the price of the device starting at only $29.00.  For what the Nokia 215 offers, it is pretty impressive but I have to ask:  At that price, why not get a Lumia 520 Windows Phone ?

Nokia has updated their HERE Drive+ and HERE Maps apps for Windows Phone today to allow users to create a new Here.com account for map and favorite synchronization.  The update for both apps is available now in the Windows Phone store.

With this update, users will be able to create a HERE account on here.com where you can import your favorites from your old Nokia account so they are synced with your device and the site.  This is part of the continued separation of what remains of Nokia and the mobile division which is now owned by Microsoft.

HERE Drive+ for Windows Phone

HERE Maps for Windows Phone

Windows Phone fans have been watching over the course of the last few months the slow demise of the Nokia name.  Nobody should be surprised by this given that Nokia is now simply a division of Microsoft but still, there is a bit of nostalgia in the name given many, many of us owned a Nokia branded phone at some point in our lives.  Now the transition is nearly complete with Microsoft announcing today that the Nokia Lumia name will be disappearing from Windows Phones and the new Microsoft Lumia name will begin to be used going forward.  The elimination of the Nokia name doesn’t stop there as Nokia named social network accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram will all be changed from Nokia-whatever to Microsoft-whatever or Lumia-whatever.

The moving away from the Nokia name really started with the rebranding of apps in the Windows Phone store.  Apps like Nokia

Now the Microsoft Lumia 635

Panoramic and Storyteller are now Lumia Panoramic and Storyteller.  That will continue until all the apps are rebranded and any new apps, such as the Lumia Selfie app, will start life branded as Lumia.  But the Microsoft Lumia change is a bit bigger than just eliminating the Nokia name.  This is a fundamental shift in how Microsoft is going to market with their phones.  Indeed it is entirely possible that we will see the name Windows Phone go away in favor of simply Windows as Microsoft tries to convey the one OS for all devices.

All of these changes along with the continual, steady development of Windows Phone as a platform, points to a new sense of direction and optimism for the Little OS That Could.  With the new Cloud and Mobile centric vision that Microsoft has under the leadership of Nadella, it only seems fitting that everything be unified under Microsoft and under Windows.

While it is sad to see the Nokia name nearing its end, it is also a point of excitement for what Microsoft has in store for the Microsoft Lumia devices and Windows Phone platform.

Over the course of the past several months, Microsoft has been slowly and quietly renaming the Nokia apps to the Lumia Apps.  This has all ben a part of the absorbing of Nokia as a company into Microsoft.  Last week during the Lumia 830 announcement at IFA, this became even clearer as every app mentioned by name was Lumia, like the Lumia Selfie app.  Now more and more of what were the Nokia apps are under the Lumia name.