This news may sound exciting/disappointing to the developed countries, but it is certainly extremely disappointing for people in third-world countries, especially India.
It is not at all hyperbole to say 'Nokia played a key role in India's mobile penetration'. They sell affordable, reliable and rigid phones for rough use in rural places of India. And I think it's true for most other countries like Africa. On the other hand Microsoft mostly makes premium software and hardware. I don't know any affordable tool(w.r.t developing countries) from Microsoft. This may put Microsoft in a better position in terms of smartphone. But in other terms this may be a step towards 'diminishing power of poor people'.
On the other hand, the low end lumias are more usable than most of same priced android phones in Brazil, I know that here and parts of africa is the way the market is going. I hope they don't stop serving this market.
The low end android sets made by Micromax, Lava etc. are priced very affordably (Rs3000-5000/$50-80). And the market is still flooded with even cheaper feature phones. I don't see how the power of poor people is diminished.
Motorola is building featurephones until this day. Lots of them. Nokia is not going to abandon that market (India's) anytime soon while they are selling there. I would not worry about it too much.
It is not at all hyperbole to say 'Nokia played a key role in India's mobile penetration'. They sell affordable, reliable and rigid phones for rough use in rural places of India. And I think it's true for most other countries like Africa. On the other hand Microsoft mostly makes premium software and hardware. I don't know any affordable tool(w.r.t developing countries) from Microsoft. This may put Microsoft in a better position in terms of smartphone. But in other terms this may be a step towards 'diminishing power of poor people'.