Microsoft's Windows Phone 8.1 world conquest plan: folders!

Sharp-eyed Twitter chap @ebin_5 has spotted something interesting: a reference to folders in future versions of Windows Phone.

Ebin published a link to a Microsoft page categorised as having something to do with Windows Phone 8 and the title “Create folders on my Start screen”. That page has since disappeared from Windowsphone.com, but not from Google's cache.

The page offers the following procedure for creating a folder:

• On Start Start button, tap and hold a Tile.
• Drag the Tile on top of another Tile that you want to have in the same folder. You have just created a folder!
• To name the folder, tap Name folder, and then type whatever name you like.
• To add another Tile to the folder, simply tap and hold a Tile, and then drag it into the folder.

In other words, exactly the same folder-creating routine from iOS and Android.

That page is one of a few hints out there that Windows Phone is about to get an update.

For example, Vulture South is in receipt of an invitation from Microsoft Devices, as the Nokia-derived bits of the company now refer to themselves, to “take back your life” at an event on July 8th. That invitation promises “a new experience and a special announcement”.

Such invitations always promise extraordinary revelations but sometimes deliver not much more than a new feature or two. Our gut – and the tweet below - tell us this one probably isn't mere fluff.

@MALISANKAR [2/2] The Windows Phone 8.1 update will roll out to existing Windows Phone 8 users during the first two weeks of July.

— Microsoft India (@MicrosoftIndia) June 26, 2014

The biggest-possible news from a Windows Phone update would be the arrival of the unified apps Microsoft has promised will run across all versions of its operating systems. Whether Redmond has had enough time to make that idea a reality is debatable. Perhaps enough sand has passed through the hourglass for deeper integration between software and hardware. At the least, evolutions of Microsoft's cloud first and devices and services mantras will be noteworthy.

And the folders? We're sure they'll come in handy. ®