Last night, “an individual with knowledge of the company said that Microsoft would introduce a Microsoft-manufactured tablet at the event,” The Wrap reported, “marking a foray into a new hardware category that would put the company in direct competition with giant rival Apple.”
Then, All Things D found sources saying, “that Microsoft concluded that it needs its own tablet, with the company designing both the hardware and software in an effort to better compete against Apple’s strengths.” All Things D’s sources added that, “Microsoft’s tablets may include machines running ARM-based processors as well as models running on traditional PC processors.”
While everything points to some proprietary hardware in the works, the company has neither confirmed or denied these reports. Microsoft has welcomed many hardware manufacturers to its Windows 8 OS, and this move could be more akin to Google manufacturing its Nexus line—if it does announce something in-house, it could be to offer an optimal environment for its OS, not necessarily to push other tablet makers out of the arena (although Microsoft did criticize Google's approach in 2010).
Then again, a new tablet could be from another manufacturer. Wired’s Alexandra Chang suggests that Microsoft’s close partnership with Nokia could result in a Microsoft-sponsored Nokia tablet. Nokia’s Windows 8 tablet has been expected for some time
via : arstechnica.com