After re-naming the smartphone version of its upcoming Windows OS from the usual Windows 10 Phone to Windows 10 Mobile, Microsoft has just dropped a major build for the same. The new build has come out with major new updates like the all new Windows Store and Universal Office Apps among others.
As I already mentioned in the preface to this story above, the biggest update to this new build is the introduction of Windows Store. The Windows store, labeled as Store (Beta) has a new visual design and if you’ve been using the Store Beta on PC, it should feel familiar since it’s the built using the new Universal Windows Platform code. Both the app selection and markets where the Store Beta is available are limited in this release. As a beta, there are a couple of known issues to be aware of with this Store app.
Also, Microsoft made sure that you realise Windows 10 mobile is coming after Windows 10 for desktops. And the latest of quotes to add on to that confirmation is the one which came along with this build blog post. Here it goes :
At the Build conference a few weeks ago, Joe Belfiore spoke to a group of press and elaborated a bit more on timing for other devices including phones. Because we’re treating Windows more like a service, this allows us to release Windows 10 on different devices and customers at different times. For phones, Windows 10 will arrive later this year – both on new devices and also upgrades for existing Windows Phone 8.1 devices. Even though Windows 10 will be arriving for phones later than it does for PCs, the underlying OS code is still the same.
Another big update is the introduction of Universal Office and Xbox Apps. Now that the Store Beta is included in this build, you can download the Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote Preview apps. With the onset of Store(Beta) you can also download the Xbox app, which has been optimised for this and subsequent Windows 10 Mobile builds.
However, do note that this build is not meant for Lumia 930, Lumia Icon, Lumia 640XL, and HTC One (M8), largely due to some resolution issues. Microsoft says that it is “excited” to bring out a build for those devices, and apart from the vagueness of that sentence, there’s nothing more revealed by Microsoft for the same.
