Microsoft’s Belfiore: Windows Phone Updates Coming

Something’s coming down the pike with Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows Phone at the latest by mid-February but so far the vendor isn’t saying exactly what it’s got in store, just hinting that it hasn’t forgotten about its own mobile OS platform.

Amid 2014’s Office roll outs for Apple (AAPL) iOS and Google (GOOG) Android, surely by now Microsoft has noticed that it’s been party to making mobile users’ Office experience on Windows Phone lag behind its rivals.

Microsoft’s Windows Phone honcho Joe Belfiore recently commented on his Chinese Weibo account that “our Office team has not forgotten Windows Phone,” in the process stirring up users’ curiosity with a few winks and nods that a number of announcements are forthcoming, perhaps in an event before the Chinese New Year on February 19th, or possibly at the vendor’s January 21 Windows 10 “consumer experience” showcase.

WindowsCentral posted an account of Belfiore’s Weibo post directed at the China market, in which he wrote:
“I want to acknowledge the comments and letters you have all sent, noting that you’ve been frustrated seeing Microsoft launch new applications like Office on iOS and Android, without accompanying news around what will happen on Windows Phone. I want to assure you that our Office team has not forgotten Windows Phone–we’re just aligning all of our news and announcements to a single event. You’ll hear much more about what we have planned before Chinese New Year.”

It might be plucking low-hanging fruit to suggest that Microsoft’s Windows Phone announcements likely will include an Office upgrade but you’d think the vendor would make that a priority.

Perhaps the vendor will unwrap its Windows Phone updates when it shows off the mobile version of its Windows 10 operating system at the Redmond, WA event in a little more than two weeks. Belfiore is slated to speak at the confab along with Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella, Operating Systems Group executive vice president Terry Myerson and Xbox boss Phil Spencer.