Microsoft could ditch Windows Phone brand to run Windows 10 on smartphones

Microsoft is ready to reveal more details about Windows 10 at an event at its headquarters on Wednesday, 21 January and new details have emerged which suggest that the version of the operating system which will run on smartphones will also simply be called Windows 10.

Microsoft has been moving towards unifying its desktop (Windows) and mobile (Windows Phone) operating systems for the last 12 months to make it easier for developers to code their app once but publish on all platforms.

With Windows 10 that is only going to become more important, and it looks like Microsoft could be ready to ditch the Windows Phone brand altogether.

As first reported by Windows Central, type the name of the latest Windows Phone smartphone - the Lumia 532 - into Google, and the product description which is returned reveals that the phone is "Windows 10 ready" (see below) - not "Windows Phone 10 ready".

Previous reports had speculated that the mobile version of Windows 10 could be called Windows Mobile 10

Continuum

At the first unveiling of Windows 10 last year, Microsoft said the new operating system would work across all product categories from desktops, to laptops, tablets and smartphones - and even Xbox One and servers - but failed to give more details on how this would work.

A new feature called Continuum is set to allow Windows 10 to change its interface depending on what the hardware is being used for. An example would be a 2-in-1 device which can convert from a laptop to a tablet, meaning a more touch-optimised version of Windows 10 would be displayed when using the device in tablet mode.

Whether something similar will be available for smartphones is unclear.

Last month Windows Central reported that one feature from an earlier version of Windows Phone is set to return in Windows 10. The feature is called Mixview or "exploding tiles" and was meant to be launched on a now-cancelled version of Windows Phone codenamed McLaren. This is how Windows Central described how it worked:

Imagine a Tile on your Start screen, as your finger hovers above the Tile, it wiggles a bit, giving you a visual indication that you are giving focus to the element. When pressing down in the air (without touching the Tile) it "explodes" into many smaller Tiles, up to eight with varying sizes and each revealing custom content from that app. For example, a contact's Tile could display their phone number, the last email, a text message, photos, etc

Other than this, little is known about Windows 10 features for smartphones, though some speculate that there will be multi-window support for devices with screens over 4.7in.

We will learn much more about the consumer features of Windows 10 for all devices on Wednesday and IBTimes UK will be covering the event live so make sure to check back from 5pm GMT to find out more.