Microsoft spent 8 years and $7,600,000,000 building a product which doesn't exist today

Microsoft spent the better part of a decade revolutionising the mobile phone market, only to never release its potential masterpiece invention.

Instead, it scrapped its development department all together, which is a bummer for those like me, who loved their Nokia Lumia phone.

The global tech giant announced in 2015 that it had cut 7,800 jobs and took a loss of a whopping $7.6bn on its mobile phone department.

This comes after the company revealed it had ended 12,500 jobs in 2014 from its Nokia business that Microsoft bought for $7.3bn in 2012.

At the time, chief executive Satya Nadella said Microsoft was going to look back on its strategy, and sadly, it just never came back after its Lumia series ended in 2016.

“We are moving from a strategy to grow a standalone phone business to a strategy to grow and create a vibrant Windows ecosystem including our first-party device family,” said Nadella, per The Guardian. “In the near term, we’ll run a more effective and focused phone portfolio business while retaining capability for long-term reinvention in mobility.”

The Lumia series was popular but flawed (CeX)

Microsoft’s former CEO Steve Ballmer had purchased Finland’s Nokia as its Windows Phone system but with the plethora of technology being released by the likes of Apple and Google, it struggled to keep up.

Instead, the company ended up losing more than it spent to obtain the Nokia company.

So, what happened?

In 2008, Microsoft announced it would begin development of its very own Windows phone, and by 2010, it had successfully developed its software, which was then used for the Lumia series.

Within the phone, users could have the same applications as any Windows computer, including Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint, so that they could do their work on the go.

With functions and features similar to a basic laptop with Windows software, the sleek touchscreen phone was pretty popular.

However, it failed to keep up with Apple and Google’s updates and new releases.

Instead, the Lumia series only released nine phones in total and was about to release another when it discontinued its line.

The phones were also plagued with mixed reviews, with people saying the phones were slow, lagged, and froze.

The phone series was discontinued (Photo Illustration by Igor Golovniov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Well, at least it’s not as bad as Apple, which spent $1,000,000,000 a year for ten years creating a product that will never release to the public.

While Ballmer wanted to continue the mobile phone development, CEO Satya Nadella took over in 2014 and ultimately saw its dwindling sales figures as a loss.

So, it was scrapped and never picked up again.

Later, the company went on to create the Surface Duo, a dual-touchscreen Android smartphone.

It was announced during an event on 2 October, 2019, and was then officially released on 10 September, 2020, as part of the Microsoft Surface.

However, that too was discontinued in 2023 after the Surface 2 in 2021.

So, the whole thing was a huge waste of money...but I still miss my Lumia.