Death looms for Lumia as Microsoft readies the Surface Phone

Microsoft's Surface Phone has been rumored for years and, may even be launching before 2016 is over. But that may also mean that the Lumia brand may be set to be retired in the process.

A Microsoft employee has told Winbeta it will "end sales" of the Lumia range at some point before December 2016.

It suggests Microsoft will be ending production of Lumia phones in December and will then sell through all of its existing stock in the following months.

That means you may be able to pick up a great deal on a Microsoft Lumia 950 or Lumia 950 XL in the January sales next year.

RIP Lumia

This matches with information we heard last week of the Surface Phone finally launching. Microsoft's Director of Engineering, Laura Butler, tweeted, "Surface Phone is not NOT confirmed".

Butler did tweet a double negative, making this a little more suspect than an actual confirmation but unless it was a mistake, it looks like the Surface Phone will be launching at some point in the next few months.

The same site suggests the phone will be ready for an October launch as well, but the exact timing in the month is currently unclear.

We haven't seen many leaks on the Surface Phone recently though, which means an October release is a little less likely than we'd hope for. It's not long to wait now to find out if the rumors have been true.