The company says Denim is now waiting for carrier approval

Nov 25, 2014 10:56 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft announced earlier this year that Lumia Denim, the next firmware update for its Lumia phones, would ship in the last quarter of 2014, but we're almost in December and this new release is nowhere to be seen.

In a very short tweet posted today, the official Lumia account belonging to Microsoft has revealed that Denim should ship “soon” because it's now waiting for carrier approval. This means that development has already completed and carriers must now give their go-ahead to start distributing the update to phones.

This is actually one of the problems for Lumia phones, as Microsoft's updating system is based on a really complex schedule that slows down the whole rollout process and brings updates to users at a really painful slow pace.

The same appears to be happening with the Lumia Denim update, as Microsoft has already completed its work on the release, but users now have to wait for carrier approval before getting their hands on the new release.

Lumia Denim improvements

People close to Microsoft's development plans indicated that flagship phones would be the first getting the Denim update, while all the others would only receive it in early 2015.

Lumia 930 and Lumia 1520 users could thus get the new firmware update by the end of the year, but this also depends on how fast carriers actually test and approve it.

Lumia Denim, however, is really important for many users out there because it comes with a gigantic pack of improvements that also include some new features that were originally implemented by Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1.

For example, Lumia Denim will offer Cortana to more users, as the personal assistant is currently available to those running Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1 and living in the United States, the United Kingdom, and China. More countries will get it with Denim, including India, Canada, and Australia.

Live folders, Apps Corner, SMS merge and forwarding, snooze times, consumer VPN, mobile web site improvements in Internet Explorer and a store live tile in the United States will also be included in the release notes of the new Denim. They're all part of Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1.

Lumia Denim will also come with some exclusive features, among which “Hey Cortana” voice activation, Glance Screen updates to also display more information, camera improvements, and better image processing algorithms.

Information on the official launch date of the new Lumia Denim continues to be really scarce right now, so we've contacted Microsoft to see if more details on this can be shared at this point.  

Lumia version on 930 (5 Images)

Lumia Cyan on Lumia 930
Cortana will be available to more users in DenimCurrent firmware version on Cyan
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