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Microsoft Vastly Expands Windows 10 Technical Preview To Dozens Of Smartphones

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If there's one mantra that Microsoft seems to be chanting with the next release of Windows, it's that the company wants feedback from its customer base on how to make it better, which is the primary goal behind its Windows Insider program. Never before have Windows customers been treated to the frequency of updates for beta releases, like Microsoft has been rolling out for Windows 10. The other mission statement with this Windows release is that the company is unifying the OS to work as one, across all platforms, from desktops and notebooks, to tablets, smartphones and even Xbox consoles. However, thus far, as my esteemed colleague pointed out, Microsoft's Windows 10 Technical Preview roll-out for smartphones has been significantly more limited than desktop releases. It was surprising actually, because without question, Microsoft has historically kept tight reins on Windows Phone devices from a hardware platform standpoint, so much so that they decided to acquire Nokia's mobile division in an effort to drive the Lumia brand directly. With all of the hardware platforms out there for Windows Phone devices being so similar, it should make the migration to their next OS that much easier.

As it turns out, Microsoft decided to greet the customer base with a bit of a "Happy Friday" gift this past work week, and announced a slew of new Lumia devices which will be getting support for the Windows 10 Technical Preview.  Among the devices are one of my favorite Windows phones, the Nokia Lumia 1020, the Lumia Icon, Lumia 1520 (seen above), as well as the Lumia 925 and Lumia 928, all of which are some of the most popular Windows Phones on the market currently.

You can find a complete list here, but it's not known exactly when we'll actually see the roll-out, just that these are the phones that will be supported in the next release. Microsoft also confirmed that the partition stitching feature of Windows 10 will be coming to this release as well, which will allow the OS to resize the main storage partition on devices without destroying existing data. This was apparently the hurdle the company had to clear to expand the offering even to lower-end devices like the Lumia 600 and 700 series of phones.

Unfortunately, specifically not listed for this release are third-party handsets from the likes of Samsung or HTC . Still, it's nice to see Microsoft is focused on delivering Windows 10 Technical Preview updates for smartphones with the same cadence they're bringing to desktops, notebooks and tablets.