We first heard about Windows Blue back in November, which would be the first update to Windows 8. More information on Windows Blue suggested that the update would unify Windows Phone and Windows and that the update would bring support for 7 and 8 inch tablets.Now new reports suggest that Microsoft may have the update ready for a Summer release and that it would include the Internet Explorer 11 browser. The report also suggests that Microsoft has recently completed Milestone 1 and that they are working on a Milestone Preview. Microsoft would then release a public preview of the update for current Windows 8 users.
The report also suggests that Bing will play an import role in Windows Blue and that the Bing team have been working on new ways to improve the search experience. It is clear that Microsoft needs Bing to be able to compete with Siri and Google Now and it makes sense that the next update will focus heavily on search.
We are also curious to see if Microsoft will use this opportunity to unify the Windows Phone 7 and Windows Phone 8 experience, which currently has the latter stuck with poor features and no future.
The public preview of Windows Blue is expected to launch within the next few months to allow current Windows 8 users to test and provide feedback on the update. Due to the short lifecycle of the update Microsoft will likely have only one preview release before the Windows Blue update goes live.
source – Win8China | The Verge | Gizmodo