++ the future of Microsoft Lumia mobile phones ++

As I said the IF is pretty large -they've clearly stated they aren't pursuing win10M but have they been so clear about being out of mobile altogether (I ask purely for information) and does that mean no Surface and an end to IOT?

Their future strategy for mobile is mostly what this thread is (should be) about so putting hopeless  optimism to one side and returning to a previous point: if Microsoft are out of mobile how do they remain relevant to mainstream consumers with most people unlikely to pay for expensive notebooks and tablets when their smartphones do enough or do Redmond believe their future is purely Enterprise with a rump of PC Master Race gamers for beta testing?

Panos Panay (Head of the Surface program) was unequivocally clear that there will be no Surface Phone. There will be some sort of "mobile" or rather "pocketable device" as the preferred term seems to be, but Microsoft's vision has not been made very clear so far as to what it will look like - just that it does not necessarily include telephony capabilities. Rumours are for some sort of folding tablet-like device with different screen size depending on whose guess you are reading about.

I personally could not care less how this ends, I jumped ship 3 years ago and never looked back. There are probably at least 30 apps, if not more, which I need on a daily basis and were never released for Windoes Phone/Mobile plus several more which are being discontinued each day, I simply couldn't function with a WM device any longer.

 Basically if someone wants to develop a device and have it run BES Blackberry will do the software for them.

Yes - and so could MS, IF all the other stuff was in place, and I agree its a gargantuan if

I'm yet to hear anyone point out any intrinsic malfunctions particular to Windows phones only, that would warrant their termination.

Errrrm, this very community is full of hundreds of examples, you just need to spend some time reading, including software "updates" which still go wrong every single month even now.

Also interesting that Blackberry feel a new phone is worth a punt despite being on their knees a couple of years ago (albeit they've caved and gone Android)

Blackberry ended all in-house design and development of hardware 2 years ago, all that is outsourced to partners, e.g Alcatel, etc. Basically if someone wants to develop a device and have it run BES Blackberry will do the software for them.

A software science giant like Microsoft should not shun taking the future of Mobile Architecture head on. Market share, rather than, the technical veracity of the devices at play  are very flimsy reasons to cite as grounds for letting the phone division go moribund. I'm yet to hear anyone point out any intrinsic malfunctions particular to Windows phones only, that would warrant their termination. The future belongs to super phones, like we've never seen, and it is a future to adore.... NOT to fear.