“The wind down of the mobile phone business is expected to be completed by July 31 although inventory of some existing models may still be available after that,” the company said.
Its decision to pull out will leave its 10pc share in North America, where it is the No. 3 brand, to be gobbled up by smartphone titans Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics.
However, as per the company's global communicator for consumer tech, Ken Hong, all of this is "completely false and without merit. I won't even justify that rumor with a statement".