Windows Phone 8.1 to Eliminate Hardware Back Button?

Paul Thurrott, regarding what he’s heard about Windows Phone 8.1:

No more Back button. Aping the iPhone navigation model, Microsoft will apparently remove the Back button from the Windows Phone hardware specification with 8.1. The Back button just doesn’t make sense, I was told: Users navigate away from an app by pressing the Start button and then open a new app, just like they do on iPhone. And the “back stack” is ill-understood by users: Most don’t realize what they’re doing when they repeatedly hit the Back button.

Yours truly on hardware back buttons, last year:

When it does exactly what you expect, the system-wide Back button is convenient. But when it doesn’t, it’s maddening.

★ Wednesday, 9 October 2013