As I sit here on this Friday afternoon, analyzing tweets from Microsoft with my fellow Twitterers and trying to determine whether there is a possibility we may receive a new Windows 10 Insider build, I am thinking a lot about builds of the operating system in general.
I am especially focusing on the sequence of Windows 10 builds we have received for mobile and PCs since the new year began.
Microsoft made a promise of faster build releases and, as I said last week, those tweaks have pretty much nailed that expectation this year.
Earlier today I tweeted that if there was no new desktop build released today that it would be the first week since mid January that we had missed a PC Insider build.
Turns out I was mistaken.
Here are the Windows Insider Fast Ring builds we have received in 2016 (number in parenthesis is the days between builds):
- 13 Jan - 11099
- 21 Jan - 11102 (8 days)
- 27 Jan - 14251 (6 days)
- 03 Feb - 14257 (7 days)
- 18 Feb - 14267 (15 days)
- 24 Feb - 14271 (6 days)
- 04 Mar - 14279 (9 days) (*)
As you can see, between builds 14257 and 14267, there was a 15 day gap - over two weeks - but if you look at the releases on the mobile side you can see that was a busy time for the Windows Team.
Windows Insider Windows 10 Mobile build releases in 2016:
- 01 Feb - 10586.71 (Fast)
- 04 Feb - 10586.71 (Slow)
- 10 Feb - 10586.107 (Fast)
- 11 Feb - 10586.107 (Slow)
- 19 Feb - 14267 (Fast)
- 24 Feb - 14267.1004 (Fast)
- 02 Mar - 10586.122 (Slow and Preview)
The period of time from 04 Feb and 19 Feb saw the Windows Team releasing four Windows 10 Mobile builds for Insiders in a combination of slow and fast ring configurations. This correlates with the 15 day period I pointed out above between PC builds 14257 and 14267.
It may be a stretch but if we end up with no new build today on PCs for Windows 10 (*) could it be possible that all the focus of the Windows Team, which works on both platforms for Windows 10, is focused on finalizing the release of Windows 10 Mobile for eligible devices?
There were reports this week that some European carriers had revealed that Windows 10 Mobile could release anytime between 07-13 March 2016 so that period of time begins next week.
Of course, these things could be totally unrelated to each other but it is interesting to look for the connections in a series of events.
What do you think?
(*) Update: Shortly after publishing this article Microsoft released Windows 10 Build 14279 for Insiders on the Fast ring. This new PC build has been added to my list above just for continuity and it was released 9 days after 14271.
I still think the longer gap between these two most recent builds could correlate with extra effort to get that Windows 10 Mobile release ready but I guess we still need to wait and see what happens next week on that front.
But, wait...there's probably more so be sure to follow me on Twitter and Google+.
