Rumors of a Windows Phone-powered HTC One M8 apparently refuse to die down and new information now bolsters such claims, pointing to a release this year.

The HTC One M8 is a glorious smartphone that has received lots of positive reviews and is considered one of the best handsets currently available on the market. Its highly-acclaimed design is stylish and durable, its specifications are high-end and its features are very popular among consumers, but some would like a different operating system on board.

With the current HTC One M8, Android runs the show on the software side. While Android is very popular and holds the lead worldwide, some HTC fans are waiting for the latest flagship to come in another variant that runs Microsoft's Windows Phone 8.1 instead of Google's OS.

Some previous hints suggested that such a version was en route, and now more information seems to bolster those claims. Tom Warren, who is part of The Verge's team and is also the founder of WinRumors, has revealed in a tweet that a new HTC One M8 running Windows Phone 8.1 will arrive later this year.

Warren doesn't mention any specific launch timeframe and this is hardly an official confirmation, but he does point out that the latest release of the Windows Phone 8.1 GDR1 update also offers precious hints in this regards.

More specifically, the release mentions at some point that it will add compatibility for smart cases such as Quick Circle and Dot View. The latter is designed for the HTC One M8, which means that Microsoft may have added compatibility with this case for an upcoming Windows Phone-powered version of the HTC One M8.

As a reminder, HTC's latest flagship smartphone sports a 5-inch full HD display, a 2.3GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB/32GB of internal storage capacity, microSD support for additional memory of up to 128GB, a Duo Camera Ultrapixel setup on its rear, a 5-megapixel front shooter, and a 2,600 mAh battery. On the software side, the handset runs Android 4.4 KitKat, but that may well change later this year.

Nothing is officially confirmed at this point, but the possibility of a Windows Phone-powered HTC One M8 sounds increasingly likely. We'll keep you up to date as soon as more information becomes available, so stay tuned.