Windows 10 Mobile upgrade won’t hit older phones until 2016

Enlarge / New Lumias are still the only place you can get official support for Windows 10 Mobile. Peter Bright Further Reading Microsoft updates Windows on phones without carriers screwing it up

With phones updated in tandem with desktops, it really is One Windows.

Microsoft has just released another new build for Windows 10 Mobile users in the Insider Preview program, but it comes with some bad news. Back in October, users of existing Windows Phone 8 and 8.1 handsets were promised that the Windows 10 update would begin to roll out in December of 2015. Now, according to a statement given to ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley, the upgrade won't start to hit existing phones until "early 2016." Development will be slowing down during the holiday season, too—Microsoft's Gabe Aul stated that no new Insider builds would be released between now and January.

The new build, 10586.36, doesn't come with detailed release notes, but at this point it seems like Microsoft is focused on fixing bugs in the software rather than adding new features or changing the way things look. That said, Aul did note that the build included non-specific improvements for users upgrading from Windows Phone 8.x.

A corresponding 10586.36 cumulative update is rolling out to Windows 10 desktop users who have applied the November update, also known as Windows 10 Version 1511. A new Insider build for desktops, 11082, was also released yesterday.

Windows 10 Mobile is currently shipping on the Lumia 950 and 950XL flagships and the low-end Lumia 550. Current Windows Phone 8 and 8.1 users with compatible phones can update to the latest build by subscribing to the Windows Insider program, but while those builds have gotten much more stable in recent releases they still aren't production-ready and probably shouldn't be installed on phones you rely on.

Source: Windows 10 Mobile upgrade won't hit older phones until 2016