This past March Microsoft released Windows 10 Mobile Build 10586.164 to its Current Branch, in other words this build became the current public release of the mobile OS, to just 18 Windows Phone 8.1 handsets.
Many users at the time were quite upset that their device was left off the upgrade eligible list. One of those handsets that seemed to meet the hardware requirements but was left off the eligibility list was the Lumia Icon - a Verizon exclusive handset.
While many tweeted and expressed their feelings about the devices that were deemed eligible for the mobile upgrade, the one device that got acknowledged very quickly by Microsoft for reconsideration was the Lumia Icon.
Now all of this happened in mid to late March, about six weeks ago, and last week users of the Icon finally got some movement on their handset being able to access the latest mobile builds of Windows 10.
In a tweet to his followers, Gabe Aul from the Windows and Devices engineering team, finally let everyone know that the Lumia Icon would soon be eligible to participate in the Windows Insider Program and be able to test the latest Redstone builds on that handset.
Good news for Lumia Icon owners: Icon will be supported for Windows 10 Mobile Preview builds from the Dev Branch in the near future. Yay!
— Gabriel Aul (@GabeAul) May 5, 2016
While this is great news for those with the Lumia Icon it is not a guarantee that the device will become an eligible handset for the Current Branch release of Windows 10 for mobile.
Why?
Because a little later in the discussion on Twitter Gabe confirmed to a couple of individuals that there was no specific news to be shared about that eligibility.
So in the interim users of the Lumia Icon can now install and test the latest Windows 10 mobile builds from the Redstone development branch and at least see how their devices perform with the latest version of the OS.
I wonder if this might be a period where Microsoft collects specific telemetry data and responses from those users to see how the handset performs in order to re-evaluate the decision to not initially make it eligible for the upgrade.
If it is could this possibly open the door for other beloved handsets to get the same treatment?
But, wait...there's probably more so be sure to follow me on Twitter and Google+.
