ITWire

Samsung has long made Windows computers, Windows Mobile and Windows Phone smartphones, and now, according to an online report, it is getting ready to make Windows 8 RT tablets alongside its upcoming 8 Pro models.

Given Samsung’s prowess in manufacturing and its own highly popular range of Android smartphones and tablets, and given Samsung’s amazing existing range of Windows 7 tablets, ultrabooks and notebooks, it comes as no surprise to learn, at least via those anonymous sources, that a Windows RT tablet is coming from Samsung, too.

Windows RT is a version of Windows 8 designed to run on ARM-powered tablets, giving RT powered tablets the ability to have the same ultrathin profiles and long battery life seen on iPads and some Android tablets, while also being able to run Microsoft Office, including Word, Excel and Powerpoint on the traditional Windows Desktop – and with Office included in the cost for tablets for the first time in Windows history.

Windows RT tablets won’t be able to run traditional x86/x64 Windows software, however, and Microsoft isn’t opening up the Windows desktop side of things to RT developers, asking them to create Metro apps instead that will work seamlessly on Windows RT tablets, Windows 8 Pro tablets (using Intel or AMD processors) and with little tweaking, Windows Phone 8 smartphones as well.

Windows RT enables manufacturers to offer Windows tablets at iPad and Android-like prices, while saving slightly thicker Intel and AMD powered tablets to run Windows 8 Pro, which includes Metro and is also able to run Windows 7 programs effortlessly.

These Windows 8 Pro tablets with Intel or AMD processors will likely still have less battery life than Windows RT ARM-powered tablets, but will deliver the ultimate in tablet and ultrabook hybrid computing, something Apple would also offer if it ever released its own “MacPad Air” hybrid model.

Bloomberg is the news organisation that spoke to those anonymous yet happy to blab “people in the know”, one of whom was brave enough to anonymously “confirm” that Windows RT and Windows 8 Pro would be launched in October.

So… the iOS and Android duopoly that has been in place for the last couple of years still battles it out for marketshare today, with iPad largely winning, but come October this year, the sleeping giant that is Microsoft finally awakens to unleash the planet’s biggest tablet challenging upset yet: not only Windows RT and Windows 8 Pro, but its OEM-challenging Microsoft Surface Windows RT tablet too, followed by a Windows 8 Pro Surface tablet 90 days after that.

The tablet wars and the golden age of smartphones and tablet computing continues!