With Microsoft now in the driving seat of Nokia devices and services, there's still a question mark over the future branding of the new smartphones.

In a Q&A session on Nokia Conversations today, Stephen Elop, former Nokia CEO and now executive vice president of Microsoft Devices Group, addressed the question of future branding.

Unfortunately, it seems that it's still yet to be decided. Although the Nokia name is available to Microsoft, it won't be used in the long-term, with a new brand being created for the Microsoft devices.

"The Nokia brand is available to Microsoft to use for its mobile phones products for a period of time, but Nokia as a brand will not be used for long going forward for smartphones. Work is underway to select the go forward smartphone brand", said Elop.

Further on, Elop repeats the same sort of message, saying:

"Now that we are One company, the marketing and product folks will lay in the plans for the shift to a consistent brand. While we are not ready to share precise details, I can assure you that it will not be the 'Nokia Lumia 1020 with Windows Phone on the AT&T LTE Network' ... too many words! That somehow doesn't roll off the tongue..." 

This doesn't bring much clarity to the situation, except to confirm that we can expect to see a re-branding exercise for smartphones in the future - perhaps with a new device launch like "Superman" to kick things off.

READ: Microsoft Nokia "Superman" to be the Windows Phone made for selfies

Elop also addresses the situation regarding a number of Nokia-specific apps, saying: "We have been building a lot of app's that have been specific to Lumia, but now those people and efforts will transfer to MSFT. We believe that these types of capabilities are critical to differentiation, so you will see these themes continue."

Many of the answers revolve around the new opportunities for faster development now that Nokia and Microsoft are integrated, as you'd expect, but we do learn something new.

Stephen Elop's favourite pizza toppings are prosciutto ham, mushrooms, green peppers and tomatoes.

You can read the full text of the AMA on the source link below.