When Satya Nadella announced that Microsoft would be writing down the Nokia assets that they purchased and changing up the strategy for building phones, there was quite a bit of "jumping to conclusion" that Windows Phone was dead. But, for the astute reader who checked out our first iteration of The Redmond Report, you will know that this is not the case.
To reaffirm that the company is committed to Windows Phone, at its Worldwide Partner Conference today, Terry Myerson restated that the company will be releasing "premium Lumias" for Windows 10 Mobile in the near future. While no date was given, all signs point to a fall release for the new devices.
Microsoft never once said that it is leaving the OS or the mobile space- the company is simply shifting strategy from one that was defined by Nokia to their own internal plans. Seeing as Nokia"s strategy of releasing dozens of devices a year with only slight modifications did not work well for Microsoft in gaining market share, it"s not a surprise that they need to try a new strategy.
Windows 10 Mobile is a key pillar for Microsoft going forward, and while they have not found success in the market yet, they cannot afford to leave the space entirely. While they may not be pushing out as many devices a year, hopefully this means the phones that do come out will have better visibility in target markets, clear differentiator and we can avoid themany overlapping devices that we"ve seen recently.