As Apple and Android continue their dominance over the rest of the smartphone market, software giant Microsoft seems to be reevaluating its options with its own Windows Phone mobile OS and Nokia smartphone hardware. 

ZDNet reports that Microsoft is going to get rid of the "Nokia" and "Windows Phone" brands from its upcoming holiday advertising campaigns. The report is based on an internal Microsoft document that claims Microsoft has decided to eschew both brands in favor of the "Lumia" name. Windows Phone OS, will also apparently be rebranded as just "Windows." Go figure. 

Now, while this isn't the first time reports of this nature have come to light, the growing number of these reports gives credibility to what is kind of a shocking move by Microsoft. The company paid billions for Nokia a few years ago, and now will just ditch perhaps the world's most successful phone brand ever? Wow.

There is also evidence that Microsoft has already begun this change in some of its marketing material for Windows Phone.

While this step might be a little radical, or even desperate, it's probably necessary. Microsoft came to the mobile game late back in 2010 and it has been trying unsuccessfully to play catch up with Apple and Google ever since. Whatever they've been doing hasn't been working as well as they'd hoped, so it makes sense for them to try a new approach. 

The rebranding of Windows Phone to just "Windows" also makes sense from the standpoint of eliminating confusion regarding the software and the hardware. Afterall, if you're Windows Phone is running Windows Phone, you're bound to encounter some mixups. 

There are also rumors that the Lumnia brand might also replace the Surface brand, though that story isn't nearly as substantiated as the news surrounding the WP and Nokia rebrand. It will be interesting to see how well this rebrand helps Microsoft sell smartphones, because while the Windows Phone OS has some fresh takes on how to get things done on a mobile device, if Microsoft can't move units, it just doesn't make sense for them to continue to try and prop up a mobile division that nobody wants. 

And with Samsung and Apple set to unleash a slew of mobile devices in the coming months that we know people want, time is running out for Microsoft to prove that it can actually be relevant in the mobile market. Because so far it hasn't been--like, at all.