In December of last year, it was reported that Microsoft was delaying the Windows 10 Mobile update for older models of Lumia smartphones. But recent reports seem to indicate that the update is finally being prepped for deployment. As spotted by a Neowin reader, it appears that the software giant has already released an internal beta for the Mobile Upgrade Advisor for Windows 10.
For those not familiar with the Mobile Upgrade Advisor app, it actually functions similarly to the tool that Microsoft utilized back in 2015 when it was readying users of PCs for the then new Windows 10 software. Reading its description, users will find that the app is capable of determining if their Windows 8.1 handset is qualified for upgrades, especially to Windows 10 Mobile. It should be noted that the app has not yet been made available to the public to download, but considering there already exists a beta version, the final, polished edition should be on its way to a wide release.
The Windows 10 Mobile operating system has already rolled out to the newest Lumia devices, namely the Lumia 950 and the Lumia 950 XL handsets (both these latest models were formally announced by Microsoft in the city of New York back in October of last year, along with the Lumia 550 handset, the Surface Pro 4 tablet, and the Surface Book laptop). However for older Lumia models, the upgrade for those devices was delayed last month, as mentioned earlier in this article. Microsoft never really provided an official reason for the delay, but some industry watchers suspect that it may have something to do with some bugs and issues that needed to be sorted out first. Based on the feedback of early adopters that the operating system of the Lumia 950 handset still needed tweaking, there may be some truth to this.
Also, the new software also seems to require lots of storage space -- Microsoft has even recommended that users may do well to free up some space before upgrading to Windows 10. This is because the app is capable of suggesting stuff like video content or pictures to be moved temporarily to OneDrive or an SD card, that is if the user has installed one. So a fair warning to owners of devices that are powered by Windows 8.1 is due -- they better start clearing up some space if they want to upgrade because the roll out could happen any day now.
