While many expect that the Surface Phone will finally debut this year, the latest reports claim that Microsoft may be planning to cancel the highly anticipated smartphone as it may not be beneficial to the company in terms of financial growth.

There is no denying that the Surface Phone is one of the most-anticipated devices for 2017. In fact, various rumors have been attached to the alleged Microsoft device for more than a year already.

While Microsoft has yet to confirm whether it is really planning to release a Surface Phone, the latest reports claim that the company may already be considering the idea of cancelling the said device because of the so-called handwriting on the wall.

Reportedly, Gartner, an American research and advisory firm, has revealed in its report that Microsoft's Windows Phone only got 0.3 percent share of the market last year. Hence, even if Microsoft releases the Surface Phone, and it does well in the market, it may still not be enough to compensate for company losses due to the poor performance of the current Windows Phone.

While it can't be denied that the report of Gartner is disheartening, and it will be reasonable, indeed, for Microsoft to abandon the smartphone market, hope may not be lost at all for those who are awaiting the release of the Surface Phone. After all, it was no less than Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella who said last year that Microsoft is not just throwing the towel just yet in its bid in the smartphone market.

"We will continue to be in the phone market not as defined by today's market leaders, but by what it is that we can uniquely do in what is the most ultimate mobile device. Therefore we stopped doing things that were me-too and started doing things, even if they are today very sub-scale, to be very focused on a specific set of customers who need a specific set of capabilities that are differentiated and that we can do a good job of," said Nadella last November in an interview with Australian Financial Review.