Windows 10 will be launching at the same time. In fact, most versions of the OS, such as the Mobile, Xbox and Hololens editions, will be coming later in the year. But in a presentation to one of its partners, a Microsoft spokesperson produced a slide showing when the company is planning to launch Windows 10 Mobile.
According to the slide, seen above, both the enterprise and consumer versions of Windows 10 Mobile, should become available “late next quarter”. In regular terms that means a launch at the end of September.
The spokesperson was a bit less enthusiastic though, hedging the company’s bets and saying that the OS should come in October, or “possibly as early as September”.
Those of you who have been closely following the development of the OS won’t find this timeline surprising at all. It fits well with the company’s development cycle and should give Microsoft an extra two months to fix and polish up Windows 10 Mobile. Not only that, but it also fits with the rumored “fall update” for Windows 10, expected around the same time.
That being said, please note this info was destined for OEMs and partners – not regular users. Meaning the timeline presented here doesn’t take into account carrier testing, update cycles and so on. So as a regular consumer, you might be in for a much longer wait, depending on your carrier and location.
Of course, for Windows Insiders, the story’s a bit different. A sign-off to OEMs likely means that Insiders would already be running the latest, release-ready build of Windows 10 Mobile. In that case, the wait for a usable version of the OS might be shorter than anticipated, at least for those in the program.
Obviously, this timeline is based on nothing major going wrong in the last stages of development and testing of Windows 10 Mobile. A major bug or issue might push a launch date even further towards the end of the year, but barring that, we’ve only got few more months to go.