Nokia France’s Facebook page has just confirmed that it will be renaming to “Microsoft Lumia”. There have already been rumors and discussions about Microsoft’s intentions to depreciate the Nokia and Windows Phone branding in the 2014 holiday season and this move comes to match speculation.

When Microsoft purchased Nokia’s Devices and Services division for $7.5 billion(a purchase that was finalized earlier in 2014), one of the purchase conditions was that Microsoft receive all the rights to the “Lumia” brand name as well as the permission to use Nokia’s brand name on their products for up to ten years (eighteen months on smartphones).

And the decision is logical, if not anything else: who could say Microsoft Nokia Lumia 735 Windows Phone clearly, in succession? When dropping “Windows Phone” as a brand name, Redmond will be bringing the nomenclature to an easier handled form: Microsoft Lumia 735.

Additionally, although there are several other manufacturers still using the mobile operating system still known as Windows Phone, it’s not probable that phrases such as “Windows Powered” will appear on packaging or in marketing phrases for these products.  This isn’t that great of a concern, especially since Microsoft’s handsets (former Nokia handsets) accounted for around nine in ten Windows Phone handsets sold.

The switch-over itself will not have a set date. Instead, it will simply smoothly move towards the “Lumia” brand, as almost all of the apps that had once been under Nokia’s purview have already been updated to the solo “Lumia” branding. Additionally, web-traffic is being redirected to Microsoft’s Mobile Devices homepage and packaging for peripherals has also removed “Windows Phone” from the text.

Last but not least, Microsoft has also announced several times, that it wishes to unify the different platforms under its control into a single code base.  If that base platform would be called “Windows”, the company would ensure many advantages both in horizontal marketing and promotion. Moreover, it would also leave product names (such as Lumia, Surface, OneDrive) free to be primary names in their specific verticals.

And while all these changes are being made, Nokia is continuing to push forward with the launch of its new beta for the HERE Maps. This product designed for Android devices is a free download and includes the consumer-facing maps apps that run on Windows Phones, iOS, and Tizen. The product grew out of the company’s acquisition of Navteq in 2007 and represents an alternative to maps from Google or Apple.