Microsoft is hinting at a big surprise for Veteran’s Day this Tuesday, which will more likely than not prove to be the company’s first Microsoft Lumia branded smartphone.
The company posted a mysterious image to their social media feeds on Friday, showing only the orange-rimmed, sleek black corner of a phone (minus any branding) and the date “11.11.14.” There’s little doubt Microsoft aims to unveil their first Nokia-less Lumia device, which comes only a matter of weeks after the company made the announcement that they were dropping the Nokia name from all new Windows Phone devices. Microsoft bought the Finnish phone manufacturer back in 2013 for a whopping $7.13 billion.
The decision to drop the Nokia brand name and adopt a more streamlined image fits nicely into Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s plans to form a more mobile and cloud-centric company, which Microsoft has made some great strides toward in the short time since Nadella took to the helm of the technology mega-giant. Most recently, Microsoft made a shocking partnership with OneDrive competitor Dropbox to provide cloud storage and collaboration services to users of Office 365 in an effort to sway customers from other services like Google Docs.
Microsoft could use a boost in sales for their mobile division, which so far only owns about 3% of all smartphones worldwide. This number has been steadily growing, seeing an uptick shortly after the release of Windows Phone 8.1 and their digital assistant, Cortana.
Speaking of Cortana, the timing of Microsoft’s potential new Lumia device comes on the same day that Halo: The Master Chief Collection drops on Xbox One. Coincidence, or is there something more to it?
Nokia, now no longer in the mobile phone production business, has been releasing Lumia devices fairly steadily as of late, catering to a wide variety of demographics. The Lumia 1520, for example, is highly regarded as one of Microsoft’s flagship devices, boasting a 20MP camera with Carl Zeiss optics, a 6.5-inch screen, and a battery that supports talk times much healthier than some of its cousins. Newer models have been aiming predominately at the cheaper markets, while the higher-end Lumia 1020 still packs a punch with the ridiculously overpowered 41MP camera, highlighted in Microsoft’s previous TV spot campaign .
What are your thoughts on the new Lumia device? What features would you like to see, or hope that Microsoft announces on Tuesday? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
[Image via Microsoft]