The strategy makes more sense when you consider this originated from Nokia. Nokia had three lines of products: feature phones, the mid range and then Lumia. The mid range was problematic. The phones could not compete with low end Android phones, because the operating system was getting outdated. On the other hand Nokia's Linux projects (Maemo/Meego and then Meltemi) had failed or were driven down to save money. Windows Phone had it's limitations on hardware support and probably Microsoft did not want to take it to low end devices. So they needed something and they ended up on Android. Skinning the phone to look like Windows Phone made it feel like part of the larger product family. In future it would have then been easier to get the users to migrate to low end Windows Phones. Maybe there was also a "political" twist. Nokia was negotiating with Microsoft about the sale of the mobile phones unit. Maybe it put more pressure on Microsoft when they saw that Nokia was moving towards Android.