Another juicy rumor has hit the tubes, this time it was from the Dell World conference last week, where CEO Michael Dell reiterated his support for the upcoming Microsoft Windows 8 operating system as a tablet platform. He stated that Dell would release a "wide range of products around Windows 8's release".

Then we have a report from DigiTimes that claims the company's first tablet devices sporting Windows 8 could arrive in Q3 2012, possibly during the back-to-school season. The report also claims that HP will be amongst the first manufacturers to launch Windows 8-based tablets. HP has previously stated that although it discontinued webOS devices, it wasn't ready to leave the tablet market altogether.

Why the change to focus on alternative tablet platforms, instead of Android? It has to do with the market saturation and the pricing war triggered by Amazon's Kindle Fire. Sources also point blame at Motorola's "family edition" Xoom, which will sell at Best Buy for $379.

ASUS and Acer will still offer Android-based devices aimed at consumers, where Lenovo will use Android, but for their business-use ThinkPad tablets, they'll be using Windows 8 for its business-orientated tablets going into the future.