Nokia 'dead by Christmas', reveals leaked blog

The brand responsible for putting Finland on the map could soon be dead, as new owners Microsoft plan to rebrand the smartphone, it is understood.

After completing its £3.2bn purchase of the mobile phone company earlier this year, Micrsoft will ditch the Nokia name in favour of Lumia, according to a leaked set of slides seen by the Geek on Gadgets blog.

One slide caption reads: “As part of our phased transition, we will drop the manufacturer name from product references during the Holiday campaign. Lumia is a trademark owned by Microsoft Mobile Oy.”

So, this could spell the end for the troubled, yet much adored national brand of Finland.

A Microsoft spokeswoman would not confirm the timing to Marketing and said: “We have nothing to share.”

But Microsoft’s executive vice-president for devices, Stephen Elop, confirmed back in April that the Nokia brand wouldn’t be used for long.

The rebrand seems to have been confirmed during an online Q&A, he said: “The Nokia brand is available to Microsoft to use for its mobile phones products for a period of time, but Nokia as a brand will not be used for long going forward for smartphones. Work is underway to select the go forward smartphone brand.”