It's the rumour that just won't die. Microsoft is making its own Windows Phone smartphone to take on the Samsung Galaxy S3 and the iPhone 5, according to yet more sources talking to various news sites around the globe. 

Just as Microsoft was perpetually rumoured to be launching Blu-ray player for the Xbox 360 - it hasn't yet - the latest rumours suggest that the company isn't overly keen on the efforts put forward by Nokia, HTC, Samsung and others and therefore decided to have a go itself - just as it is about to with the Microsoft Surface.

The rumour started after a report this week in China Today, and has been continued by two websites in the US falling over themselves to claim they have the inside exclusive scoop.

"Information has come forward to Windows Phone Central that demonstrates Microsoft does have their own Windows Phone hardware in the works; in fact, we’ve heard it already exists and is in testing. The source(s) are known to us and not anonymous, though for obvious reasons we must keep them off the record," claims Windows Phone news site Windows Phone Central.

"Details about what it looks like, hardware specifications, launch times, etc have not been shared with us by the person(s) who have provided the information. The only thing we do know is when compared to current WP8 hardware it’s something unique."

BGR.com, which has been known to be wrong on many occasions, claims in its "exclusive" that "BGR has learned that the Redmond, Washington-based company plans to release its own Windows Phone 8 smartphone in the coming months," before adding later in the article that: "Our source declined to provide any details beyond the fact that the handset is in the late stages of development and will launch in the coming months."

Of course with new high-profile launches just a week away from HTC, Nokia, and Samsung it would seem a strange move from Microsoft to openly compete against its partners, especially after both Nokia and HTC claim that Microsoft is actively helping them launch their phones - mentally, physically and financially. 

HTC and Microsoft has even gone as far as calling the 8X and the 8S "Signature Windows Phones", with Microsoft insisting HTC brands the new models the Windows Phone 8X by HTC - hardly the move of a company about to launch its own model competing against the new handsets.

That leads us to either take the "sources" with a pinch of salt, or believe that it could be wishful thinking by a few Microsoft employees keen to make the rumours a reality.

Then there are others, like Mary-Jo Foley at ZDNet.com, which suggests Microsoft go on the record and say that it definitively isn't making a Windows Phone phone. That would be likely to cause it problems if Microsoft did a U-turn later on.

For us, at the moment, we can't see a Microsoft-made Windows Phone becoming a reality any time soon.

Now where is that Blu-ray disc, I need to fire up that yet-to-be-launched Xbox.