It’s been a few months since we’ve heard rumours about a possible Nokia tablet, and now the mysterious device has surfaced again. According to the buzz, Nokia will present its first tablet PC closer to the end of the year. The first Nokia tablet will reportedly sport a dual-core processor and a 10-inch screen, which are pretty weak stats that suggest Nokia isn’t aiming to take on the major players yet, so think Amazon Kindle Fire rather than iPad. The interesting thing though is that the tablet will run on the yet-unreleased Windows 8 platform, which could possibly be optimized for specific hardware in the same way the current smartphone-oriented Windows Phone 7 is, although with its cross-platform nature, such optimization will be much harder to achieve.

As you probably know, Windows 8 is one of the most anticipated and radical releases of the leading operating system. Looking at the screenshots of the beta versions, you might struggle to identify it as a Windows system at all, which is entirely because of the new Metro user interface that debuted on Windows Phone 7 and has instantly been recognized as one of the most intuitive user interfaces on the market. But that’s not the most interesting bit yet – Windows 8 will be a cross-platform system, with versions available for desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones, giving the user the same look and feel across all devices. Besides, this is the first time Microsoft will make the system run on ARM-based systems, and many manufacturers have already announced they will release ARM-based devices with Windows 8 installed. When and if Nokia confirms its plans to release the tablet PC, it’ll join the camp of Microsoft’s supporters in its quest to new platforms. Hopefully we’ll hear more news soon, as a  tablet PC would be a logical move from Nokia, especially considering its special relationship with Microsoft.

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