None of this surprised me, or indeed any AWWP reader, of course. And I've maintained for years that the very introduction of the 'Lumia' brand in 2011 was anticipating an eventual purchase by Microsoft and a need to drop 'Nokia' for something equally short and pithy a few years down the line.
The only possible surprise is that an image in the article implied that 'Microsoft' will be the word at the top of each device's front, not 'Lumia'. The latter, being very well known now, and being both short and similar in form to the old 'Nokia', would have made a much more obvious frontispiece. Ah well, maybe this isn't final yet - we won't know until a new branded device arrives for real.
From the Conversations piece: (my emphases)
This is a very exciting time for us and for Lumia products. You might have seen that in the last couple of months, we have already made some name changes to our apps to better reflect that these apps now come from Microsoft.
Our global and local websites are going through a transition as we speak and in the coming days our social channels will get a new name too – they will be called Microsoft Lumia. We would like to invite our Lumia fans to continue to follow us and always be up to speed with the latest device news on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
This work continues across our devices, packaging and retail, to name a few. It’s all going as planned and we’re excited that our integration in to Microsoft continues to be on track....
...what I can say is that that we are looking forward to unveiling a Microsoft Lumia device soon. This is of course a natural progression as all devices that once came from Nokia now come from Microsoft.
And, the Lumia promise of great phone experiences will remain the same as our customers have come to know and love. What’s more, Lumia phones will also showcase the best of Microsoft’s services such as Office, OneDrive, Skype and Bing to help customers with their work and personal lives.
The Conversations blog itself will be at a new home on the web in the near future, of course, under microsoft.com.
Comments welcome. Would 'Microsoft' on the front be a good thing or a bad thing? I can see pros and cons either way!