Windows Phone 8.1 Rumors

 By: Unknown    21:27  Blue, gdr3, HTC, lumia, microsoft, Nokia, rumour, Thurrott, windows phone, Windows Phone blue, Windows RT, WP, WP8, WP81   1 comment

 

We have being looking in every corner for the next Windows Phone update commonly known as GDR3 and for Nokia's special update as "Bittersweet shimmer". We expect GDR3 to be announced on 22nd Oct 2013 and then released to public in late Dec 2013/Jan 2014.

 

As of today, we are getting some information regarding Windows Phone 8.1 (Codename Blue) from a very reliable source in Microsoft world, Mr. Paul Thurrott.

We are already heard a lot of reports about Windows Phone 8.1 features. But Thurrott focused on some of the features which we haven't heard about before. There are as followed:


Universal binaries. Microsoft is currently pushing the notion of universal binaries that would let developers create a single app that can run both on Windows RT and Windows Phone. This is opt-in because of size issues, apparently, but could eventually become a requirement. Where Windows Phone 8 has 33 percent "API unity" with Windows RT, Windows Phone 8.1 will hit 77 percent.

Multitasking. Microsoft has supposedly flagged multitasking as Windows Phone's biggest technical issue. GDR3 will fix some issues—it will let users manually close apps, for example—but notifications and background processes are a mess and quite inefficient. These issues will apparently be addressed by 8.1.

Bigger screens. Where GDR3 is widely expected to support 5- to 6-inch screens, 8.1 will supposedly support 7- to 10-inch screens as well. This obviously infringes on Windows RT/8.x tablets, so it's not clear what the thinking is there.

No more Back button. Aping the iPhone navigation model, Microsoft will apparently remove the Back button from the Windows Phone hardware specification with 8.1. The Back button just doesn't make sense, I was told: Users navigate away from an app by pressing the Start button and then open a new app, just like they do on iPhone. And the "back stack" is ill-understood by users: Most don't realize what they're doing when they repeatedly hit the Back button.  (So what about the present generation of Windows Phone 8 devices with Back button.!!! )

Low-cost/volume vs. High-cost/luxury. With the Lumia 520 and 620, Windows Phone has found its niche in the low end of the market. This has helped sales, but Microsoft has always wanted to position Windows Phone as a high-end system like iPhone, which is where the money is. Obviously, they're not going to walk away from market share gains, but low-end phones have technical limitations that harm the platform's forward progress. And this is what sank Windows PC sales when the netbook arrived. The push to 1080p screens and bigger devices will determine whether Windows Phone can break out of this mold.


Note from Thurrott: "While I've independently verified information from this source that is not included in this post, the information you see here is from a single source only. So while I do believe it is correct, you've been warned: I'm not as sure of some of this information as I normally am when I decide to publish. But I felt this was too interesting to not discuss it."

So, What do you think about these features?

Source:  Winsupersite