Windows 8 could come as soon as the third quarter of this year, with a report claiming (citing anonymous sources) that both Acer and Lenovo are set to launch their own tablet running the OS and a new Intel platform.
The platform in question is its Clover Trail platform, which is said to be preferred by “PC players” as the upcoming Medfield processor continues to miss performance targets in terms of battery life and is, according to Digitimes report, being “eclipsed by ARM-based processors in terms of performance”.
Sources also state that these Windows tablets will have “strong potential in the enterprise market”, hinting at Windows 8 tablets could possibly never reach the consumer market in order to avoid the iPad competition. Unfortunately, that seems like a false positive as – and this plagues RIM – they seem to forget that business and enterprise users are also consumers. As such, the competition with the iPad will still be there.
We could see an announcement during CES, though the rumour doesn’t say. And if there was such an announcement, it’ll most likely be up on stage with Steve Ballmer.