Microsoft almost made a feature phone that looked like Windows Phone

Microsoft was going to make a feature phone that looked like Windows phone. Yeah, weird right?

Did you know that Microsoft, even after purchasing Nokia's phone business, never actually released a feature phone under the "Microsoft" brand? The Redmond-giant only ever released a handful of feature phones after the acquisition, all of which remained "Nokia" branded. The "Microsoft" brand was reserved for its Lumia devices, likely to differentiate the feature phones from the Windows Phones.

That wasn't always going to be the plan, however. Based on an early prototype we've got our hands on, the company was building itself a "Microsoft" branded feature phone that borrowed the same industrial designs found in the Lumia 550 and 950, and rocked a feature phone OS built to look like Windows Phone. This is the canceled Microsoft "RM-1182" or as we prefer to call it, the Microsoft Dumb Phone.

Although the existence of this handset has leaked before, as far as I'm aware nobody knew about the work Microsoft had put into the phone's OS to make it look like a Windows Phone. This feature phone has everything from live tiles (ish) to Microsoft Account integration that lets you sync your account data, including contacts and email directly to the phone, just like on a Windows Phone.

Windows Phone lookalike

from Windows Central - News, Forums, Reviews, Help for Windows 10 and all things Microsoft. https://ift.tt/2R9sji6
via IFTTT