Tea-time next Wednesday is the time to tune in, live, to the video from Microsoft's West Coast event in the USA, starting at 9am PST, or 5pm GMT here in Europe. Expect much more on Windows 10 for desktops, tablets and, yes, for phones, along with an 'Insiders' programme for enthusiasts (that's you and me). Phone Insider will probably be the official replacement for the old 'Preview for Developers' programme which, let's be honest, was mainly used by keen consumers rather than bona fide developers.

This is the URL to tune into, anyway: news.microsoft.com/windows10story/ And no, there's nothing there yet, other than a preview slide:

Quite exciting, really, and less than a week away now. Assuming that Phone Insider becomes official, I wonder what sort of timescale we're talking about for versions of the new platform? Here's my guess:

• January 2015 - Phone Insider programme announced
• February - First release available for phones, marked with lots of caveats and incompatibilities
• March - Second release
• April - Third release, nearing competion
• May - OS essentially complete for phones, released to partners
• June - First Windows 10 smartphones available from Asian OEMs
• July - testing over, we start seeing first OTA updates start to roll out. Also first Windows 10 smartphones from Microsoft available.
• August/September - Wider OTA rollout for existing WP 8.1 class devices with 1GB RAM or greater

Comments?