After several delays, Microsoft will begin rolling out Windows 10 Mobile to legacy Lumia handsets on Thursday, March 17. Sources familiar with the company’s plans told VentureBeat that the software giant will announce the same-day availability of Windows 10 Mobile on March 17. However, there is no information on the list of devices that will receive the update. Microsoft may reveal the list during the announcement. Here is a list of supported phones that was leaked in December.
Windows 10 Mobile to be rolled out passively
The OS will be rolled out passively. It means the Lumia devices selected for the upgrade will have to initiate it manually. Later, at an unspecified date, the Redmond-based company will start pushing the new firmware to eligible phones actively. Microsoft had previously said the Windows 10 Mobile would arrive in December 2015. After missing that deadline, the company was targeting a February release. After a month-long delay, it is ready to roll out the firmware to mobile devices.
Phones like Lumia 950 and 950 XL already ship with Windows 10 Mobile. The Redmond-based company aims to have Windows 10 installed on at least a billion devices by 2018. As of December 2015, Windows 10 was running more than 200 million PCs worldwide.
Windows 10 apps coming to Xbox One this summer
Microsoft executive Jason Ronald revealed at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco that, starting this summer, developers will be able to bring their Windows 10 apps to the Xbox One. The software giant is expected to provide more details about the Xbox One app store at the Built conference later this month. However, it is still unclear how the new store would work.
With its Universal Windows Platform, Microsoft aims to make it easy for developers to make games for Windows 10. Developers can create a single app for the Xbox, PC, tablet, smartphones, with minor changes required to suit each screen size. There is a difference between apps available on Xbox One and smartphones. It will be interesting to see how Microsoft maintains the quality of Xbox apps with the new strategy.
