Microsoft’s Windows chief Julie Larson-Green has confirmed that the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant will make available Windows 8.1, code-named Blue by the end of June.
The big announcement is planned for Microsoft’s 3rd annual Build conference and just a few weeks ahead of the company’s Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston.
Larson-Green, you may recall was hastily put in place of Windows after the mysterious departure of Steve Sinofsky who lead the development of Windows 8 and promptly left the organization after the launch.
The plan is to ship a public preview of Windows 8.1 during Build conference on June 26 in San Francisco. Microsoft will then have the final edition ready before the end of the year.
Tami Reller, the corporate vice president and CFO of the Windows business for Microsoft tipped her hat saying that they would be changes to Windows mostly based on customer feedback for example the return of the Start button.
According to report, some of the changes to Windows maybe cosmetic such as the start screen and more options for colours.
What might be interesting to channel partners it the potential for the Windows Blue to support multiple device form-factors. Windows 8 has been able to function on both tablet and PCs.
At last year’s Worldwide Partner Conference in Toronto, CDN reported that Reller put a lot of emphasis on what Windows 8 can offer the enterprise, which was a big customer request before the operating system was launched in Oct.
Reller said that Windows 8 is business ready, while also being personal allowing organizations to be in control of their data. She added that Windows would address the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend in a secure environment.