Microsoft's move away from making smartphones actually makes a lot of sense

Microsoft on Wednesday announced that it was further "streamlining" its mobile phone business. The firm will lay off more than 1,800 workers, and will focus its phone efforts where they have differentiation, according to Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella. So while this certainly doesn't mean that Microsoft will ignore smartphones in the future, it certainly sounds like they're not interested in selling Lumia phones -- or any others -- to the average consumer anymore. It may sound a little bonkers to get out of the smartphone market now, when everyone and their mothers are glued to their mobile devices. And this latest move does mean that Microsoft has written down more than the 9.6 billion it spent to acquire Nokia's handset business in 2014.