Exactly one year ago today, Microsoft shut down its regional Lumia accounts on Twitter, along with its @LumiaHelp support account. It was another step on the company"s journey to dissolve its phone hardware business; earlier this year, its quarterly phone revenue collapsed to just $5 million, down from $1.4 billion two years before, and during the most recent quarter, Microsoft described its phone revenue as "immaterial".
Last week, Microsoft removed the last Lumia handset from its Store in the United States, leaving just a handful of Windows phones from its hardware partners available there. Now, with its Lumia line effectively dead, Microsoft has gone one step further, deleting its Lumia channel from YouTube.
With the removal of the channel, Microsoft has deleted all of the videos that it uploaded there, including those that once proudly announced the launches of devices such as the Lumia 950 and 950 XL flagships; and its last smartphone, the Lumia 650, which it revealed a year and a half ago. As you can see from our articles there - which we haven"t deleted - the videos that formerly showcased its new handsets now come up as "unavailable".
If you attempt to visit the Lumia channel itself, you"ll see a notification stating: "This channel was closed and is no longer available." An archived version from November can still be viewed here.
In addition to product announcements, the Lumia YouTube channel also included "how to" video guides, interviews, and other features related to Microsoft"s Windows phones. While some of these videos may well live on via the company"s other YouTube channels, as well as third-party accounts that duplicated the videos, much of this content has apparently been lost.
Microsoft is still holding onto its main @Lumia Twitter account, and its Lumia Facebook page, and you"ll also find details of Windows phones old and new on its own site, but it seems likely that these too will vanish soon enough.