No more waiting for carriers -- Microsoft will push out Windows 10 Mobile updates

One of the frustrations facing Windows Phone users -- much like Android fans -- is that when an OS update is announced it can be difficult to find out when, or indeed if, a particular handset will receive it. Carriers can take an age to release update to their customers.

With Windows 10 Mobile, Microsoft is making things much simpler by taking over the task of pushing out updates. This means users will no longer have to wait for their mobile carrier to get around to it. It's something that will help not only to ensure that as many people as possible are using the very latest version of the operating system, but will also help to stamp out a serious problem: fragmentation.

Talking to ZDNet, Microsoft says that Windows updates will be proactively pushed to all supported devices, phones included. In fact, this is not exactly new news, but Microsoft has now clarified something that was not entirely clear. Earlier in the month at Ignite, the company explained that its "continuous update process applies to all Windows 10 devices, including phones". It also took the opportunity to take a little dig at Google at the fragmentation that blights Android:

This level of commitment and support is far different than Android, for example, where Google refuses to take responsibility for updating their customers’ devices, leaving end-users and business increasingly exposed every day they use the device.

But just as with the upgrade process and pricing for the up-coming operating, not everything about Windows 10 has been crystal clear, with details creeping out here and there rather than all at once. Now we know that keeping Windows 10 Mobile up to date will work in exactly the same way as the desktop version of Windows 10 -- Microsoft is in control of the updates, no one else. As Ed Bott explains:

[The] statement applies to all Windows 10 Mobile devices, personal and business, and that the new mobile update process will be consistent with the update process for Windows 10 on PCs.