Microsoft is working on Windows Phone 8.1 GDR1, will likely arrive this year

Microsoft has still to rollout the Windows Phone 8.1 update to existing Windows Phone devices, but the company already seems to be working on the first update to their mobile operating system. Microsoft is reportedly in the latter stages of internally testing Windows Phone 8.1 GDR1 (General Distribution Release).

Microsoft is reportedly in the "dogfooding" stage, which means the company's developers are currently using the update on their devices internally. While this doesn't necessarily mean the update is ready for public consumption, it does indicate that it is already usable on consumer devices.

Nothing is known about the features expected on the GDR1 update of Windows Phone 8.1. With Windows Phone 8, Microsoft released three GDR updates, which brought several new features and improvements to the platform. While GDR updates don't usually bring big changes, we can expect Microsoft to continue their trend to catch up with iOS and Android, and hopefully overtake the veteran platforms in features.

Once developers have completed internally testing the GDR1 update, it will hopefully be rolled out to the wider developer community. However it is important to note that the Windows Phone 8.1 Developer Preview was a major update, which required developers to enhance their apps for the release. This may not be the case with GDR1, so we wont be surprised if it skips a Developer Preview release.

source - Neowin | WMPoweruser