Project Milkyway: Microsoft’s plan to get Windows 10 on mobile devices 4-6 weeks after launch

Earlier today I shared some information from a presentation that will be given at WinHec in Shenzhen, China by Ming-che Julius Ho one of Microsoft’s senior program managers. In that briefing he discussed the upgrade paths for both desktop and mobile devices to Windows 10.

In his slidedeck, which is available at Microsoft’s Channel 9 site, part of the briefing includes something called Project Milkyway.

This projects main goal is to delight users and update their eligible mobile device to Windows 10 within 4-6 weeks of its public availability/release.

Ambitious to say the least since the latest update for Windows Phone 8.1, known as Denim, was rolled out by Microsoft in December 2014 and there are still phones that have not received the update from their respective carriers.

Even the flagship Nokia Lumia 1520 on AT&T did not get Denim until late February of this year – 10 weeks beyond Microsoft making it available to carriers for testing and OTA release.

As you can see in this flow chart from the presentation there still appears to be one step tied to the carriers to Validate OTA Updates on Retail Phones.

Based on the past history of this process I am not going to hold my breath to see my Windows Phone 8.1 device upgraded to the final release of Windows 10 in just 4-6 weeks. Unless the carriers are taken out of the loop this will continue to be an issue even with Project Milkyway.

But, wait...there's probably more so be sure to follow me on Twitter and Google+.