WARC, 23 April 2014
HELSINKI: Nokia is reportedly about to be rebranded as
Microsoft Mobile, signalling still-closer ties between the Finnish mobile phone
company and the US tech giant.
According to a post on the Nokia Power User blog, which
summarises the contents of a letter to Nokia's business suppliers, the renaming
will take place as part of Microsoft's acquisition of the company.
"Please note that upon the close of the transaction
between Microsoft and Nokia, the name of Nokia Corporation/Nokia Oyj will
change to Microsoft Mobile Oy," the letter states.
"Microsoft Mobile Oy is the legal entity name that
should be used for VAT IDs and for the issuance of invoices," it
continued.
In a separate statement, Microsoft has said that its €5.4bn
all-cash acquisition of Nokia is set to complete this week. A "strategic
alliance" between the two companies was originally announced in 2011.
Speaking to Marketing Week, Annette Zimmerman, a research
analyst at Gartner, commented: "The Nokia brand still has a high value to
people. That doesn't mean the Microsoft brand is not known - but what does it
mean to people?"
Nokia has suffered steady declines in market share over
recent years, a trend exacerbated by the global consumer switch from feature
phones to smartphones.
Figures from Gartner released in February suggest that
Nokia's overall market share dropped from 19.1% of the mobile phone market in
2012 to 13.9% in 2013.
Over the same period, the share taken by Samsung, the
world's largest handset maker, grew from 22% to 24.6%.
Data sourced from Financial Times/Nokia Power User/Marketing
Week/Gartner; additional content by Warc staff
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