14 DAY TRIAL // The official Microsoft Lumia Twitter account confirmed in a short post that the upcoming Windows Phone 10 smartphone operating system would run on all Lumia devices currently powered by Windows Phone 8, which means that no major changes in terms of hardware requirements would be implemented.
We reported pretty much the same thing a few weeks ago, after receiving similar information from unofficial sources, but at that point, what we heard was that absolutely all devices running Windows Phone 8 would be able to upgrade to Windows Phone 10.
After reading Microsoft's tweet, it's easy to notice that there might be a little catch here. Microsoft says that “all Lumia Windows Phone 8 devices” will receive Windows 10 upgrades, so this could actually be an indication that Redmond is considering offering the new OS version only to its own handsets.
Does this mean that non-Lumia Windows Phone devices could be blocked from switching to Windows Phone 10? It's definitely too early to speculate on this, but there's no doubt that Microsoft is at least thinking about such a thing since the tweet only mentions “Lumia Windows Phone 8 devices.”
Release date next year
Windows Phone 10 is still in its incipient stages, but sources close to the matter indicated that the new smartphone OS could be launched at about the same time as Windows 10.
The full version of Microsoft's new OS, which would revamp the desktop and introduce plenty of new tools, is expected to launch in spring 2015, so Windows Phone 10 could see daylight in the early months of the next year.
Microsoft has already confirmed that work on Windows Phone 10 started a few months ago and hinted that a preview could be released to users in early 2105. At this point, it's not yet clear whether the same dates remain part of Microsoft's schedule or not.
Possible merger with Windows RT
People with knowledge of Microsoft's development plans indicated that Redmond could merge Windows RT with Windows Phone in the next OS release in an attempt to create just a single platform powering both smartphones and tablets.
This way, the company would try one more time to eliminate confusion created by the numerous versions of its Windows operating system, some of which were very limited and obviously attracted an avalanche of criticism after their public launch.
Windows RT was brought to life in October 2012 with the Surface RT, Microsoft's very first tablet that was launched together with Windows 8.
Windows RT, however, was a stripped-down version of Windows 8 that mixed the desktop with the Modern UI into a single platform, without offering support for legacy Windows software, and thus causing more confusion for customers who expected to use it as a full-featured laptop.
@_Y06_ There will be Windows 10 upgrades for all Lumia Windows Phone 8 devices :) And we will release new Windows 10 models in the future!
— Lumia (@lumia) November 11, 2014
