Microsoft has been tipped to introduce a Surface Phone for a while and a new report suggests that could be all the company focused on going forward. It is said to be ditching the Lumia branding and ending production of the Windows 10 handsets by the end of this year.

Having already reported poor sales of the latest line, Microsoft is seemingly ready to ditch it and start again. An employee of the company told Winbeta that it will "end sales" of the range in December 2016.

That site suggests that Microsoft is ending production rather than sales - it's not going to dump a load of Lumia handsets in landfill now, after all. Instead, it is likely to sell existing stock at discounted prices.

Indeed, you can already find several bargains online for Lumia devices as it stands.

Winbeta also claims that the much-rumoured Surface Phone will be announced at an event in October. It comes after Microsoft's director of engineering, Laura Butler, tweeted about the handset with a cryptic tease.

"Surface Phone not NOT confirmed," she wrote. The double negative has been taken by many to mean that the handset does exist.

If there is an event in October, we'll find out soon enough.