Microsoft has been working on the Windows Phone 8 successor update that is scheduled sometime later this year. Meanwhile, a Reddit user named ChinaMan28 had posted screenshots of the Windows Phone 8.1 “Blue†update taken from a Nokia Lumia 920 smartphone. Apparently, Microsoft did manage to get the screenshots removed but WP7Connect managed to save them.
Microsoft has codenamed the Windows Phone 8.1 as Blue and expected to hit the existing Windows Phone 8 devices in the second half of this year. While Microsoft’s Windows Phone team is busy working on new features in the WP 8.1 Blue, a sneak peak of the same was given by a lucky user. The Reddit poster claimed to have purchased Lumia 920 from eBay with an early build of Windows Phone 8.1 Blue installed on it.
Out of the screenshots posted, the most significant change visible is the new Notification Center. Finally, the Windows Phone will have a dedicated notification center just like the Apple iOS and Google Android has. Besides that, users will be able to sort applications by name and frequent usage. Multi-tasking on the Windows Phone 8 is likely to be taken to the next level where users can close the applications from the multi-tasking window itself.
Though these screenshots might appear to be a visual trickery but since the evidence has been removed from Reddit, it in a way confirms the work in progress. Microsoft does need to make the Windows Phone platform more capable and equally competitive with the Apple iOS, Google Android and even the new BlackBerry 10 OS platform.
