Microsoft's uphill battle for awareness with their mobile platform, Windows Phone, has been an arduous one for sure. It's taken time, and a slow-and-steady game plan that has seemed strange to many, yet apparently worked perfectly for the Washington-state based company. But that's been okay for them. Microsoft's had a plan, they've apparently stuck to it, and even managed to swallow up one of their biggest fans along the way.
I can't say whether or not Microsoft acquiring Nokia's Devices & Services division was ever part of a long-term plan, but I'm sure it didn't hurt anything. In fact, it probably made it easier. The big "M" has already shown the world that they want to create and release their own devices, to perfectly accompany their software, with the Surface-branded tablets, so acquiring a company that's already creating the world's most popular Windows Phone handsets probably made a lot of sense.
We're all still waiting to see the fruit of that labor, though.
There has been a few Nokia releases since the start of the acquisition late last year, but none of the recently launched devices have garnered much long-term attention. They collected plenty of steam at launch, but soon after pretty much dropped off the face of the map. I haven't heard or seen anyone talk about the Lumia Icon in a long time, while I still hear about the Lumia 1020 pretty often. The Lumia 1520 still finds its way into many of my social media streams, too, for whatever reason.
Nokia's Lumia 900 and 920 garnered much of the same attention, and managed to keep it months after launch. They were popular phones that carried plenty of the Windows Phone "burden," and the Lumia 1020 and Lumia 1520 eased some of that pressure with their own releases. Now I know that a lot of Windows Phone users are waiting for that next big thing from . . . someone. That next flagship phone that really warrants plenty of attention, and sees an uptick in Microsoft's mobile platform adoption.
The Rumor Mill continues to suggest that we'll see two new Windows Phone-based devices as soon as June, which may or may not still have Nokia branding on them. Details on those handsets are pretty thin, and it's been quite some time since we've actually heard anything on them. There's a strong chance they're rebranded, but that the majority of their components and specifications are kept the same for when they're released this year.
If they're released at all.
But both Samsung and HTC have said they're still working on Windows Phone-based devices, so it's certainly possible that they've got noteworthy handsets coming down the pipe. I won't lie, I'd love to see an One M8 running Windows Phone 8.1. That'd be pretty great. Or, a Galaxy S5 running Microsoft's newest version to their mobile OS? That'd be pretty great.
So, I wanted to ask the Windows Phone fans out there, as well as the people that have wanted to switch to Microsoft's mobile platform but have waited for the right device: what do you want to see with the next flagship Windows Phone handset? What are the features that you're going to be looking for, and expect to see? What's one thing that would make you seriously consider picking it up, and something that would keep you away from it? Let me know!
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