The codeword "blue" is a major topic in Microsoft talk these days, and the upcoming refresh of Windows slated for 2013 release which evidently is set to be called "Windows 8.1" is part of Blue. Project Blue is not synonymous with 8.1, Windows Phone 8.1, Windows RT 8.1 or any other single release though, nor is it so singularly attached to a projected "Windows 8.2" in 2014 or "8.3" in 2015. The public names of the upcoming releases after 8.1 are complete speculation but the point that there will be yearly refreshes is not: this is precisely what "Blue" refers to. It's a continual series of more frequent, incremental refreshes to the Microsoft platform spanning the PC, tablet and phone markets. Part of "blue" also includes increasing the linkage between and common code base underlying the releases for the different markets. Eventually Windows phone 8.x will be in essence Windows 8.x minus the desktop (which wouldn't fit on a phone screen anyway) and optimized for the physically smaller screen; the underlying code will be highly similar.
These will partially replace the old model of Service Packs, which Microsoft has been already phasing out in recent years. New annual releases bigger than a Service Pack but somewhat lesser in scope than the previous versions of Windows spaced 2-3 years apart is the future delivery model and is similar to what Apple is doing now (Mac OSX 10.9 will be out later this year, just a year after 10.8 "Mountain Lion" in 2012 and kicking off Apple's series of annual refreshes). Pricing for 8.1 hasn't been announced yet but it's expected to be a bit less than previous versions of Windows.
As to the first iteration of Blue, which for the PC will be Windows 8.1, it is a doubling down on the bet MS made in Windows 8 but more refined and polished- and it may include some responses to some of the most common complaints about Windows 8. In particular, there is a lot of speculation lately that the start button will make a return, though no longer coupled with a start menu. Instead the start button will work the way it did in a preview release of Windows 8 before it was yanked out in the final shipped version: as a visible link to the new start screen. While this won't bring back the start menu of old, it will make it less confusing for average customers to navigate since in the present version the links to the start screen are invisible. It is also possible that an option to boot directly to the desktop will be present, though this may not disable the Modern features entirely but simply allow the user to skip the start screen on bootup. This speculation is backed by the fact that changes pointing to these possibilities have been discovered in leaked developmental builds of 8.1.
Much of the remaining visible changes to 8.1 focus on refining the Modern environment. To summarize:
an "all apps" button will be added to the lower left-hand corner of the Start screen to make it easier to find the full Apps menu, which in the current Windows 8 is accessible by swiping up on a touch screen or right-clicking with a mouse to expose the menu bar which is normally
The "Snap" feature which allows multiple Modern apps to run on the screen at once will be expanded such that up to four apps can be run at once (the number depending on screen resolution, larger screens permitting more apps to be snapped at once) and the options to split the screen area between them have been modified: by default snapped apps will now take up equal portions of the screen but the ratio can be changed by dragging the divider to one side or the other. As with Windows 8 the desktop can be one of the snapped apps.
As a corollary to the previous enhancement, the experience on multiple monitors has been expanded to allow more snapped apps across the screens
The Settings menu in the modern environment is being greatly expanded such that more configuration can be done in the Modern environment without being kicked into the desktop Control Panel (though the Control panel will likely still contain all the power is has now: the expansion of Metro as of right now does not appear to correspond with a coincidental neutering of the Desktop).
The collection of Apps included by default is being expanded to include more Modern app versions of some of the basic utilities bundled with the desktop including a new Modern Calculator app, a timer/alarm clock app and most notably a Modern "Files" app, which will be a Modern-app-ized version of the venerable Windows Explorer (or File Explorer as it's renamed in Windows 8), the file manager. There are presently third-party File manager apps in the Windows App store though this will bundle an "official" version by default, which may have access to features locked out of any third party app.
Additionally, there will be further optimization to the internals which should result in better battery life, a lower memory footprint, and generally better performance.
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You are now free to throw tomatoes
