14 DAY TRIAL // Dean Hachamovitch announced recently that he would no longer be in charge of Internet Explorer in order to focus on “something new,” without revealing any specifics regarding his new position.
Joe Belfiore, one of the key people involved in the development of Windows Phone, will also take over some responsibilities in the Internet Explorer team, with the focus to be switched to app development.
Basically, Belfiore’s main goal will be to continue the merger between Windows, Windows RT, and Windows Phone, as Microsoft is working to unify all three platforms and provide a similar experience across all devices.
The company has already made the first step towards this new approach with a change regarding developers, asking for just a single account to create apps for either Windows or Windows Phone.
Belfiore will thus try to improve the user experience in Internet Explorer and will pay particular attention to the way the browser works on desktops, tablets, and smartphones. He confirmed the move in a short tweet, saying the he’ll stay focused on his Windows Phone work, but he’ll also add IE app development to his responsibilities.
“Everyone asking: I’m still doing phone work, just adding IE & Windows UX as part of my next role focused on ‘phone/tablet/pc,’” he wrote.
The first results of Belfiore’s new task will most likely be seen next year, as Microsoft is expected to complete the unification of its platforms sometime in 2014.
The Spring GDR update aimed at Windows 8.1 machines is expected to be the first release to incorporate such changes, with some people familiar with the matter hinting that a possible merge of Windows Phone and the Windows app stores is very likely.
Microsoft has never talked about this publicly, so delaying this important change to Windows 9 is also possible. Windows 9 is scheduled to go live in either late 2014 or early 2015.