Nadella: Microsoft to focus on Windows phone flagships, business phones, and budget phones

While announcing that it would layoff up to 7,800 people, "primarily in the phone business", Microsoft today also published an email that Satya Nadella - the company's CEO - had sent to employees following the job-cut news.

Nadella says that today's announcement represents a "fundamental restructuring" of Microsoft's phone business, as the company is moving away "from a strategy to grow a standalone phone business to a strategy to grow and create a vibrant Windows ecosystem that includes our first-party device family."

From now on, Microsoft plans to streamline its phone portfolio. The company is looking forward to focusing on three major categories: value phones for customers on a budget (providing "the communications services they want"), phones for business users (offering "the best management, security and productivity experiences"), and flagship handsets (which, according to Satya Nadella, Windows fans "will love").

If we're to believe rumors, Microsoft's next flagship handset could be the Lumia 940, which reportedly features a 5.2-inch 1080p display and a 25 MP PureView rear camera. A Lumia 940 XL might also hit the market at some point, possibly coming with a 5.7-inch Quad HD (1440 x 2560 pixels) display. Anyway, we assume that Microsoft won't be launching any new smartphones before Windows 10 Mobile is officially released (probably in September).

source: Microsoft