Fall of an icon: Nokia’s device division to be officially acquired by Microsoft on Friday

The end of an era is fast approaching. Microsoft announced on Monday that it will finalize its acquisition of Nokia’s devices and services division on Friday, April 25th, thus marking the end of the line for Nokia smartphones. Nokia, an iconic Finnish company that was instrumental in making mobile phones a staple gadget throughout the world, will now focus primarily on making telecom equipment while Microsoft will use Nokia’s engineering talent to make its own smartphones and tablets. Microsoft will not retain the Nokia branding for its mobile devices and will instead rename the division “Microsoft Mobile.” Microsoft also says that “this acquisition will help… accelerate innovation and market adoption for Windows Phones” all while “introducing the next billion customers to Microsoft services via Nokia mobile phones.”