14 DAY TRIAL // Rumor has it that Microsoft wants to discontinue the Lumia series of phones as soon as December, and now a new report seems to suggest that we’re getting very close to this moment.
GSMArena writes that Microsoft’s Windows 10 Mobile flagships are no longer available in the United Kingdom and there’s a good chance that the company won't bring them back in stock in the future.
Neither the Lumia 950 nor the 950 XL can be purchased from Microsoft’s stores in the country and this is believed to be one big step towards the company’s complete demise of the Lumia brand.
It goes without saying that the device can still be purchased from other retailers and third-party stores, but with the company itself running out of Lumias and not planning to make more units available, one can only wonder how long it takes for the company to officially acknowledge the shut-down for the brand.
Here comes the Surface Phone
It’s one-good-one-bad when it comes to news for Windows Phone fans, as there are reports that Microsoft might have started trial production of the Surface Phone with partner Pegatron.
It’s believed that the Surface Phone project advances nicely, and Microsoft is ready to proceed to trial production, ahead of the public launch that could take place in the second half of next year.
Basically, Microsoft plans to give up on the Lumia brand in order to focus exclusively on the Surface Phone, a device that should be a flagship in all regards, coming not only with the best hardware a phone could get when it launches but also with software improvements that would address the lack of apps.
People with knowledge of the matter indicated that Microsoft was working on an emulation system that could enable a Surface Phone to run x86 apps in Continuum mode.
These are all rumors for the time being, but given Microsoft’s lack of activity on the hardware side of Windows 10 Mobile, the discontinuation of the Lumia brand seems to be just a matter of time.