Microsoft Doesn’t Know When Windows Phone 8.1 Will Hit Older Devices In Australia

Microsoft Doesn’t Know When Windows Phone 8.1 Will Hit Older Devices In Australia

The Nokia Lumia 930 and its cut-price counterpart, the Lumia 635, are both bound for Australian store shelves this month. Their arrival heralds the launch of Windows Phone 8.1 in Australia, but don’t start throwing streamers just yet: Microsoft Australia has no idea when existing users will get access to the update.

Speaking to journalists at a press briefing for the new Lumia products yesterday, Microsoft Australia advised us it still didn’t have firm dates for when the Windows Phone 8.1 update would roll out to older Lumia devices, including the Nokia Lumia 1520, Lumia 1020 and other flagships.

The only plan around Windows Phone 8.1 right now is to ship it with the Lumia 930 and Lumia 635 and work on older devices after that.

Windows Phone 8.1 includes updates like a new Notification Center panel, new lock screen tweaks, new fonts and colours and the ability to tweak your own lock screen. There’s also access to new services for health data capture and camera software tweaks.

Windows Phone 8.1 will likely be released in the coming months, based on how these things usually go with carrier negotiations. Microsoft simply doesn’t know the precise date, simply because the testing process for software updates is lengthy and complicated.

One of the crucial parts of Windows Phone 8.1 is even further away, however, and that’s Microsoft’s personal assistant software, known as Cortana.

Cortana was debuted at the /BUILD conference earlier this year in the US. That means that developers in North America and Europe can already get access to the personal assistant, but Aussies will have to wait.

Because it’s still a “beta” product, Microsoft Australia won’t even be drawn on a rough release date for the feature.

Earlier indications from /BUILD pointed to a 2015 release date for Cortana in Australia, but that’s still all we have to go on.


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