After letting go of its smartphone division, rumours are now going around that Microsoft is prepared to pull the plug entirely on the Lumia, with the company planning to discontinue sales of its smartphones by December.
An anonymous internal source has spoken to Ars Technica, saying that Microsoft is looking to “end sales” of the Lumia smartphones by the end of the year. With no new Lumias scheduled to be release in the coming months, and with Microsoft no longer selling the phones itself on the US website, all signs point to the fact that the Lumia is on its way out.
While the Lumias may be dead, said anonymous source also mentioned that the rumoured Surface Phone will be taking the Lumia’s place. In a pair of now-deleted tweets, one of Microsoft’s engineering directors, Laura Butler, teased the existence of the Surface Phone. Microsoft is said to be planning a Surface event in October to reveal the Surface All-in-One, so it could be at this particular event that Microsoft chooses to divulge more information about the Surface Phone. Should that not be the case, you’ll probably only hear about it in 2017.
Source: Ars Technica