Windows Phone 8.1 would bring better multitasking

"Windows Phone&39;s GDR3 update isn&39;t even official yet, and rumors are already starting to appear about the next generation: Windows Phone 8.1 Blue . They come from Paul Thurrott, who has gotten some pretty interesting information from one of his sources- although he is not 100% sure of its veracity-"

"The first change, and the most striking, is that Microsoft could remove the Back button from phones with Windows Phone, following the navigation model of the iPhone and Windows RT. The reason is that users don&39;t really understand what going back in apps really is, and most of the time they just use the home button to go to the home screen and open another app.Windows Phone 8.1 would also bring improvements that point towards that rumored convergence with Windows RT: universal binaries with more compatible APIs between Phone and RT (77% in total according to Thurrott) and support for screens up to 10 inches. This leaves the light version of Windows in a very curious place: we will have to wait for more information to find out what Microsoft intends with this strategy (if the rumors are true, of course)."

In addition, Windows Phone 8.1 would have improvements in multitasking, especially focused on notifications and background processes. Thurrott does not specify very well what these improvements will consist of. And finally, with this version, Redmond would try to push Windows Phone towards the high-end phone sector, instead of focusing so much on low-cost ones like the Lumia 520. Strange thing, because precisely that commitment to good quality and performance at low prices is what is making Windows Phone gain ground.

The most curious change of all is, as I said before, the back button. Although at first it may seem absurd, thinking about it a little more may make sense. It is true that, although the navigation model of Windows Phone is simple, it is not intuitive: sometimes it closes applications, sometimes it returns to the last page you viewed of the application... From this point of view, it seems better to remove the button and give users an intuitive way to navigate through application pages and through the system. If they implement it well with gestures (a la Windows RT) there shouldn't be much of a problem.

Of course, these won't be all the changes to Windows Phone 8.1: we have a lot to learn until 2014, which is when the update should be released to the public. In fact, we still have to know all the details of GDR3, so it is very likely that we will have quite a few surprises about Windows Phone.

Via | Paul Thurrott