Today at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Joe Belfiore, head of platform at Microsoft, confirmed that the Windows 8.1 update coming this spring will be shifting its focus to be more accessible on non-touch devices, a wider range of hardware, and customizations that will be more friendly to the education and enterprise sectors. But don’t call this a recall of touch: “None of the work we are doing has a negative effect on the touch experience at all,” Belfiore said. “We love touch.”
He said that the update will be coming “this spring”, with no more specific shipping date.
Also included, as people have reported, will be a return of a “start” button and screen along with discoverable search and power, and more mouse and key-board friendly features.
Belfiore noted that while Windows 8 was, in the words of Belfiore, a “significant” update for Microsoft (with its touch UI, new folder architecture and so on), 8.1 will be a return to some of the older features that preceded it.
“Some of these things leak and you can imagine how it feels to see people writing and speculating, so I want to set the record straight,” Belfiore said. “We love touch.”
Since Windows 8 launched, Microsoft says that it has seen 200 million Windows 8 licenses sold, with Windows 8 / 8.1 has a larger market share than all versions of OSX; 40% of windows 8 devices sold in the US are touch enabled, and over 4 million app downloads.
More to come.
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