Windows phone discontinued?

The Windows (phone) or Mobile ecosystem is not dead yet, Microsoft is still committed.

What you are hearing is what is already known, MIcrosoft will probably not develop new phones under the Microsoft brand, but leave that up to third party manufacturers like HP and Alcatel etc etc

...but there are persistent rumours of Microsoft working on a new line of Microsoft branded phones marketed as the Surface Phone. Latest rumours are for release in late 2017/ supposed to feature the new snapdragon 835 octacore processor and GPU. Further rumours suggest compatibility with normal x86 programs when it is run on continuum.

Still these rumours have not been formally substantiated by Microsoft.

I wouldn't buy a windows phone if I was you. Sooner or later they will discontinue them. Just like they did with the Zune, and will do with the Xbox. Companies can not rebrand themselves it never works.

I am a Windows Phone user since model 7. It was a Samsung. I liked the tiles. Over time they added the apps I'd use. I didn't see a reason to look for another. I think it was March last year when my then four months old 950XL had a sharper screen than the other guys' phones at the pub. So I even had that gadget moment despite the known Microsoft story in the phone business. 

Like any large organization, not all decisions at Microsoft are rational. No one can really know what will happen to the phones until it happens. If I were the boss, I wouldn't want to keep a loss maker (assuming that is the case). But then I'd have to keep the devices that are sold until today running for several years. So the math is about which option costs more: Continue or discontinue? If I can sell another million phones with a new high-end model, does it make the numbers look any better? Can I make it a sales pitch for corporate customers somehow as contingency plan? Shall I push music and movies to the paying Windows OS customers as a bundle and mirror it on the phones?

Questions, questions...

"Companies can not rebrand themselves it never works". Are you joking? Apple started out as solely a computer company. Bill Gates found a way to beat Steve Jobs out in the computer market with Microsoft, where Windows computers dominated over Macintosh computers. The early 2000's saw the re-emergence of Apple with their Apple-OS computers. It didn't put them ahead, but it really closed the gap as Apple was just getting started on their big plans to run the gauntlet THAT STARTED WITH REBRANDING THEMSELVES! They built better and better computers starting out, then the iPhone took the world by storm. It became 1 of the first 2 smart phones alongside Nokia to release the world's first 2 truly smartphones with full internet. Can you guess which one won the battle? Apple did, And it started with what? You guessed it, REBRANDING THEMSELVES and continued to dominate from there. So, while it may look grim for Windows phone, they can recover if they know what they need to fix, how to rebrand it, and how to market it properly. Score one for capitalism, and the fighting spirit to succeed in the face of adversity. It's not about if you get knocked down, it's about can you get back up and keep fighting? That's what winners do. Losers quit because they give up hope.