Microsoft Kills Nokia’s Android Smartphone Project

In a recent mail to his employees, Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella announced that Microsoft would be reducing the size of its overall workforce by up to 18,000 jobs in the next year. In the same mail, he also said that Microsoft plans to shift ‘select’ Nokia X product designs to become Lumia products running Windows Phone.

So why the change? In Nadella’s words, “This builds on our success in the affordable smartphone space and aligns with our focus on Windows Universal Apps.”

You might recall, Nokia’s X phones promised to blend two operating systems, Microsoft’s Windows Phone and Google’s Android, into one that maintained the core functionality of Android while providing services and designs from Windows Phone. It was said to be lowly priced to target consumers in developing countries like India. The idea was that once Nokia X users became ready for higer-end phones, Nokia’s own Lumia lineup would be their first choice since they were already accustomed to Nokia services.