Microsoft Possibly Planning A Tablet Launch at June 18th Event

By Zanub Saeed

Microsoft may be set to reveal that it will be launching its own tablet brand, to river Apple's hot-selling iPad, and may reveal this as early as next week, said a report from The Wrap.

According to a report by entertainment website The Wrap, Microsoft has scheduled a secret event for June 18^th at 3:30pm in Los Angeles, where apparently a "major" announcement will be made. No further information about the event has been revealed, not even where it will take place.

A inside source, with knowledge of Microsoft and its company, told the Wrap that Microsoft would indeed be introducing their own tablet at Monday's event, as a means to break into the tablet-selling business, especially against the iPad and Amazon's Kindle Fire.

If the rumor is true, Microsoft will not be the only company releasing new tablets. According to the Washington Post, Samsung and Hewelett-Packard are expected to add their own Windows-functioning tablets to the market soon. However, this will be the first tablet made by the creators of the Windows operating system, if the rumors hold true.

The Wrap also stated that rumors surfaced that Microsoft's supposed new tablet will run on a Windows RT, which is a version of Windows 8 operation system that uses an ARM microprocessor. Again, nothing has been confirmed by Microsoft, and when The Wrap asked the company, they had not responded to request to comment on the allegations.

The Los Angeles location of the event is causing theories to arise that the conference may be more about the promotion of Microsoft's Xbox gaming unit, said the Washington Post, related to the console's new "SmartGlass" feature that will allow consumers to view videos from Xbox Live onto nearly any mobile and smartphone device. The Xbox can be purchased at major electronics retailers in the United States, like Best Buy and Target.

Microsoft's found, Bill Gates, has been known to experiment with the tablet technology, noted The Wrap, for nearly a decade, though again no portable computer system has been released by the multi-billion-dollar corporation.