Images removed at the request of MAQ Software

Windows Phone 7.5 has just started pouring out to current devices, and we’ve only seen a few new devices released, but we’re already looking forward to the next version of Windows Phone after that. Here’s a few images of a new start screen design for East Asian versions of Windows Phone. They were created by a Microsoft User Experience Designer for the next version of Windows Phone. We’re not sure if they are actually representative of features that definitely will be coming to an update, but you can see some interesting differences including options for much larger tiles.

In the sketch above, you can also see a few options for arranging tiles into a smaller grid. This might be a method for creating “folders” that contain a larger number of app shortcuts. Perhaps you’ll be able to tap the one tile that contains a bunch of smaller tiles and it will expand right there on the start screen to give you access to a group of apps.

This is all speculation of course, as these could certainly be rejected mockups. What do you think? Could this be something coming to the “Tango” upgrade in 2012? Do those app-group live tiles sound useful?