Microsoft Said to Finish Windows 8 in Summer, Debut October

Bloomberg: Unnamed “people with knowledge of the schedule” tell Bloomberg that Microsoft will finish up Windows 8 this summer and the first devices using the new operating system will hit the shelves in October–in plenty of time for the holiday shopping rush. “If they miss the September-October time frame, they’re going to be stuck without being able to ship anything in 2012,” said Gartner analyst Michael Gartenberg. “The last thing Microsoft wants to have is a situation where there are no compelling Windows tablets at a time when the new iPad looks like it’s going to be a good seller for the holidays.”

Although manufacturers still hope to release ARM-based devices that run Windows 8 at the same time that Intel-based Windows 8 devices debut, there likely won’t be many of the ARM devices on the market in the beginning. While Windows 8 will debut on about 40 products with Intel processors, it will run only on about 5 products with ARM processors at launch time.