Microsoft to push out Windows 10 Mobile updates itself
Mobile networks will no longer have control over Windows smartphone updates
Microsoft will ensure that all Windows 10 Mobile owners get operating system updates at the same time, as it finally takes control of the update process. Windows Phone owners currently have to wait for sign-off from their mobile network before their device is updated, leaving some devices running on months’ old software.
With the forthcoming launch of Windows 10 Mobile, Microsoft plans to wrest control back from the networks, moving to an Apple-like system of pushing out software updates itself. The company claims the change will keep devices more secure, as they’re not left waiting for critical updates. “Here at Microsoft, we take our responsibility to keep Windows secure seriously,” Windows chief Terry Myerson wrote in a Windows Insider blog, earlier this month. “We follow up on all reported security issues, continuously probe our software with leading edge techniques, and proactively update supported devices with necessary updates to address issues. And today, we’re announcing this continuous update process applies to all Windows 10 devices, including phones.”
ZDNet’s Ed Bott subsequently confirmed with Microsoft that both consumer and business handsets will receive software updates as soon as they’re released, bringing the mobile version of Windows 10 in line with tablets and PCs, which already get updates directly from the mothership.
It’s not the first time Microsoft has made such promises, though. When Windows Phone was first launched in 2010, the company said it would be taking control of the update process, avoiding the operating system fragmentation that had plagued Android. That never came to fruition, however, with networks eventually dictating the pace of releases.
Now that Microsoft effectively controls the Windows Phone hardware in the same way Apple does, with its own Lumia-branded handsets representing almost the entirety of the market, the company perhaps feels emboldened to cut the networks out of the update process.
Whilst Microsoft is set to release the main Windows 10 operating system this summer, the Mobile version won’t be available until the autumn at the very earliest. Early previews of Windows 10 Mobile show an unstable operating system that is a long way from completion.