Is 'Windows Blue' a set of coordinated updates for all Microsoft products

Windows Blue, the reports said, will release Microsoft's flagship operating system from its stale two- to three-year upgrade cycles, and herald a new era of more frequent yearly updates.

If true, it would represent a fundamental development shift for Microsoft. And now, ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley says that Windows Blue's fundamental changes won't be limited to Windows 8 alone.

Instead, Foley says "one very accurate tipster of mine who doesn't want to be identified" told her that "Blue" is the codename for a swath of coordinated updates spanning an entire range of Microsoft products, all of which will land in the summer or fall. Windows Phone, Windows Server, Windows RT, and various Windows-centric services such as SkyDrive and Outlook.com all allegedly have "Blue" updates in the works.

Like Windows itself, the other Microsoft platforms have traditionally used an upgrade cycle of two years to three years, with major changes appearing in each iteration.

Frankly, that approach just doesn't cut it anymore. As I mentioned in my initial analysis of the Windows Blue rumor, the world moves at a much faster pace these days--a pace that makes the typical Microsoftian cycle seem positively glacial.