Windows 8 Release Date Confirmed for October Alongside iPhone 5, Surface Tablet

By Daniel Blake, Christian Post Contributor Monday, July 09, 2012

The Windows 8 release date has finally been confirmed and announced by Microsoft, and it appears the latest version of Windows will be available, as predicted by many sources, in October 2012.

Microsoft have verified rumors that had suggested an October release date was likely, but as yet, the tech. giant has not offered a specific date the product will drop on.

The announcement was made at Microsoft's Worldwide Partners Conference in Toronto, according to the Associated Press, and immediately sparked a frenzy of rumors within the tech. industry about what other products would be released around the same time to supplement Windows 8.

For months it has been generally agreed by analysts that along with the release of Windows 8, Microsoft would look to release its Windows Phone 8. If those rumors prove true, it would also be likely that at least one new smartphone device would also be released alongside it, which would run and show off the company's next mobile operating system. So potentially around October and November 2012 all three of these could be available to consumers.

Already Microsoft has confirmed that its highly anticipated Surface tablet would also be launched at a similar time as Windows 8, so a new tablet could be hitting the market later this year also.

Q4 of 2012 is beginning to ramp up as quite an exciting time for tech. followers. It has been touted that Apple will release its long-awaited iPhone 5 in October as well. Although more recent rumors have suggested Apple are planning to move the release date forward due to increased competition from Samsung after its highly successful worldwide release of the Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphone.

Also in October it has been touted that Apple could be planning a release of an iPad Mini. A 7 inch device is expected to be released which will see Apple try to smash competition at the lower end of the tablet market, so far dominated by the Amazon Kindle Fire and the Barnes and Noble Nook Tablet.

However, the tech. releases do not end there as Samsung is also rumored to be working on a Windows 8 tablet of their own, which again, has been predicted to be released alongside the Windows 8.