14 DAY TRIAL // Last week, Redmond-based software giant Microsoft unveiled to the world its latest mobile operating system flavor in the form of Windows Phone 8.1, and it seems that the company is already preparing updates for it.
According to a recent article on WPCentral, Microsoft is planning to release two updates for the mobile operating system this year, though specific info on when they might arrive hasn’t been provided as of now.
Apparently, Microsoft will go with WP8.1 on the same road it took with Windows Phone 8, which saw no less than three General Distribution Release updates being pushed to it in the past 12 months or so.
Both Update 1 and Update 2 for Windows Phone 8.1 are expected to become available for download before the end of this year, while a major upgrade for the OS might be released in early 2015, it seems.
However, there is also the possibility that Microsoft will make a third GDR update available for the mobile OS, and that the aforementioned major upgrade will arrive only afterwards.
Recently, a Microsoft employee has suggested on Reddit that Microsoft is actually aiming at making a major update for the platform available in the next 6-8 months.
Unfortunately, no specific info on what the aforementioned GDR updates for Windows Phone 8.1 might have to offer has been provided as of now.
As WPCentral notes, Microsoft has been previously rumored to plan on launching a “3D gesture system” for its mobile OS, though there’s little chance that it will make it available before the next major platform version.
Another rumor claims that Nokia might consider the release of a dual-lens phone, which should be offering multi-focus, Lytro type effect, though no official confirmation on the matter has been provided yet.
The launch of such a device would reportedly require the inclusion of a series of new features in the platform itself, which should be accompanied by general bug fixes.
Microsoft might be set to make the first update for the platform available before the end of the summer, only months after Windows Phone 8.1’s release, while expecting to push the second one out sometime towards the end of the year.
The next major Windows Phone release included in the Threshold project could be unveiled in spring 2015, one year after the official unveiling of WP8.1. It should be accompanied by a major upgrade for the desktop OS, it seems.
As mentioned above, no official confirmation on any of the above has been provided by this time, but the roadmap falls in line with what Microsoft did last year, and it might very well pan out in the end.