Microsoft: Windows Blue Is Coming This Year

Datamation content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More .

Microsoft has finally officially confirmed what many in the tech industry have long been speculating: the company will release an update for Windows 8, codenamed Blue, later this year. However, the company hasn’t specified pricing details or a release date.”

All Things D’s Ina Fried reported, “After months of rumors, Microsoft on Monday confirmed that it is readying an update to Windows 8 for later this year. Code-named Windows Blue, the update will enable Windows to run on a wider range of devices (read: smaller-screen tablets). In a blog post, Microsoft said the update will also respond to some criticisms of Windows 8 and Windows RT, but the company didn’t go into specifics.”

Mashable quoted Windows marketing chief Tami Reller, who said, “What we did in Windows 8 was really to lay the foundation for taking advantage of mobile computing broadly, whether it was tablets or increasingly mobile PCs. All of Blue is about continuing that vision.”

Nick Wingfield with The New York Times noted, “Microsoft’s basic vision for Windows 8 has not changed — an operating system flexible enough to run on traditional PCs, tablets and everything in between — but the company is for the first time confirming that it is making changes to the software to address some of the problems people have when using it. In a recent interview at Microsoft’s headquarters, Tami Reller, the chief marketing officer and chief financial officer of the Windows division, revealed that Windows Blue will be released this calendar year and will include modifications that make the software easier to learn, especially for people running it on computers without touch screens. ‘The learning curve is real and needs to be addressed,’ Ms. Reller said.

ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley added, “Reller said the Windows team will share pricing, packaging and go-to-market details about Blue in the next couple of weeks. Yes — that’s ahead of the upcoming Computex Taipei, Microsoft TechEd and Microsoft Build 2013 shows, all happening in June. She would not comment as to whether Microsoft will go public with details about Windows Server Blue, Windows Phone Blue or Visual Studio Blue at the same time. My guess is no.”