Windows Phone and the near future

Mango, Tango, Apollo, Portico and now even GDR. You would be forgiven if you lost track of all these code names that are circling around the web. Most of you will probably know that the above names are referring to milestone builds of Windows Phone, but what is that new GDR term mean? And what about the much talked about Blue update?

Let’s start with the rumoured Blue update first. Blue is used by Microsoft to identify several updates across the board ranging from Windows 8 and Windows RT all the way to Windows Phone 8 and there are even sources saying that Blue is referring to updates of services like Bing and outlook.com. What this means is that we shouldn’t be talking about Blue for a long while as it will probably still take a while before that will come out, I’d say late fall of this year would be a decent estimate.

So, GDR then. The abbreviation stands for General Distribution Release and has been spotted first in a recent HTC leak with the addition of the number 2, making it GDR2. That would suggest there has already been a GDR1 and that is correct according to the always well informed Mary Jo Foley from ZDnet.com. GDR1 was the Portico update, which wasn’t that big of an update but it did add some missing features and probably optimized others either visible or invisible.

‘…WP8 users should not fear of being left out as even the Blue update will most likely come to devices…’

What does it all mean to you as a Windows Phone 8 user? Well, the WP development team has gone so silent that it is guesswork, but rumours do indicate that not only will there be a GDR2 release, there will also be a GDR3 release. Both will add new stuff, however, it is unknown right now what will end up where and when.

As a veteran Windows Phone user I have been hesitant to believe updates will come since being somewhat left out in the cold with version 7. (Although the 7.8 update is solid and Nokia does provide enough love for 7.8 users) But this time around it should be different and WP8 users should not fear of being left out as even the Blue update will most likely come to devices like the 920.

Source: Mary Jo Foley at ZDnet.com

Category: Nokia