So what's next for Windows after 8.1?

Microsoft is making Windows 8.1 commercially available over the next day-plus -- depending on your time zone.

Unsurprisingly, this milestone leads many Microsoft watchers, partners, and customers to wonder what will be coming next. Again, unsurprisingly, Microsoft isn't talking about what will be the follow-on to Windows 8.1, code-named Blue. But that doesn't mean things are at a standstill.
Here's what I'm hearing from my sources.
As I've blogged before, I've heard the Windows team will be releasing a spring 2014 update to Windows 8.1 that will coincide with the release of Windows Phone Blue. (Yes, I am still hearing Windows Phone Blue, which may be called Windows Phone 8.1, is still a spring 2014 thing.)

Some believe Microsoft will also be releasing a bigger, new version of Windows in the fall of 2014, about a year after Windows 8.1. But I'm hearing from one of my trusted sources who has a good accuracy rate on Windows rumors that this is looking less and less likely.
There's a lot in flux inside the new, unified Operating System Group at Microsoft, headed by Terry Myerson. Supposedly, from what I'm hearing, the OSG team is rethinking priorities, workflow, and just about everything else when it comes to Windows, Windows Phone, and the Xbox operating systems, going forward.

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