There was a spate of Windows Phone scaremongering over the weekend, after speculation that the platform would be discontinued in mid-2014. This came about after it was noticed that Microsoft had published Windows Phone's support life cycle, just as the company does with almost all its other software.

Per Microsoft: Windows Phone 7.8 is supported until September 9, 2014; Windows Phone 8 until July 8, 2014.

Technically, this means that there is a chance Microsoft will indeed abandon its smartphone platform and stop producing smartphone software in less than 18 months.

However, this is unlikely. As Microsoft emphasized on Twitter today, one of the rationales for moving Windows Phone onto the same NT core that desktop Windows uses is easier upgrading. A significant new version—a Windows Phone 8.5 or Windows Phone 9, say—would reset the support period and extend the window out another 18 months. Support periods aren't tied to operating system families; they're tied to specific versions. Each release of a new version creates a new support window.

In this way, Windows Phone will work much like Windows does. Windows XP's support ends in April 2014. That doesn't, however, mean that Microsoft is discontinuing Windows. It means Windows XP has been superseded. Its successors—Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8—are all supported beyond April 2014.