Microsoft unveiled its latest Windows Phone 8.1 last week at its BUILD 2014 conference and will release the developer preview in the "first part of April."
Windows Phone 8.1 will bring some great improvements and new features to the table, and the first devices running the latest software will hit commercial availability in May.
Microsoft's Joe Belfiore has now announced that the Windows Phone 8.1 Developer Preview will become available very soon.
"Lots of questions from everyone... Here's SOME answers. Timing for dev preview... 'first part of April.' We don't have exact date yet," Belfiore tweeted on Sunday, April 6.
This rather vague timeline suggests that Windows Phone 8.1 Developer Preview should become available within a couple of weeks, leaving devs with plenty of time to do their magic before the OS becomes commercially available.
Windows Phone 8.1 brings some notable new features, including a long-awaited notifications center called Action Center, and Microsoft's Cortana digital assistant. Cortana is the company's answer to Apple's Siri and the Google Now digital assistant gracing Android devices.
The new OS version will also bring many more improvements and features, aiming to take the Windows Phone platform to the next level. Nokia has already launched higher-end Windows Phone devices recently, but the latest Windows Phone 8.1 will allow for better functionality and a notably enhanced experience overall.
Back at BUILD 2014, when it unveiled the new OS, Microsoft said that Windows Phone 8.1 will roll out to the general public over the next couple of months. As previously mentioned, the first Windows Phone 8.1 handsets are expected to launch in May and the software will also roll out to existing Windows Phone 8 devices afterwards.
From Nokia's part, the first Windows Phone 8.1 devices will launch as the mid-range Lumia 630 and Lumia 635, and the high-end Lumia 930, which is essentially the global variant of the Verizon-exclusive Lumia Icon. Existing Nokia smartphones based on Windows Phone 8 will get the new software later through a Lumia Cyan update. Samsung, meanwhile, is rumored to launch its first Windows Phone 8.1 smartphone as the ATIV Core, but the company has yet to make an official announcement.
