Microsoft’s announcement to reduce the number of smartphones it makes yesterday was pretty vague, but we may now know exactly what the company has in mind.
A person familiar with Microsoft’s plans has revealed that the company plans to release a maximum of six smartphones each year, according to a Bloomberg report.
That’s no surprise – yesterday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said: “In the near-term, we’ll run a more effective and focused phone portfolio.”
At the time, it wasn’t clear exactly how far Nadella wanted to pull back the Lumia program, although his revelation of 7,800 impending job cuts didn’t look good for the company’s phone business.
Plans are beginning to take shape now however, as today’s report outlines: “Nadella’s restructuring plan includes sharply reducing the number of models the company will release, now about one a week when counting variations for geographical markets.”
It continues: “Instead,
Related: Best Smartphone 2015
Microsoft has already launched six smartphones this year, specifically: the Lumia 435, Lumia 532, Lumia 640, Lumia 640 XL, Lumia 430 and the Lumia 540 Dual, as noted by PhoneArena.
It’s likely, however, that we may see new smartphones before the end of the year, with the new strategy instead pencilled in for 2016.
Further 2015 smartphone releases are made even more probable by the approaching launch of Windows 10 for Mobile, which is set for “later” this year.
The new OS will likely need flagship phones to debut on, so we may see some of the aforementioned “high-end devices” beginning to ship around the same time as the mobile software launch.
In the meantime, check out our hands-on video with the Microsoft Lumia 640 and 640L: