Microsoft reportedly will finish the work on latest Windows 8 by summer, setting the official release sometime in October.

Sources from Bloomberg said Microsoft will make public all release details and schedule at an industry event in April.

The new Windows 8 is set to be the first one to use ARM processors, most commonly found in smartphones. The most recent version available now, Windows 7, only works with technology by Intel. Out of the Windows 8 ARM devices, three will be tablets. Windows 8 was set to be shipped at the same time with the latest x86 chips that power traditional PCs. “Our collective goal is for PC makers to ship [Windows on ARM devices] the same time,” said Steven Sinosfsky, president of the Windows Company.

There will also be fewer ARM-based devices because of the drastic control quality Microsoft has imposed. Thus, Microsoft will have to run the same ARM chips in its latest tablets as well in order to increase the market demand and face rival Apple.

The three manufacturers of the latest ARM-based processors are Nvidia Corp., Texas Instruments Inc. and Qualcomm Inc. However, Sinofsky, repeatedly said that Microsoft’s latest Windows 8 will run on both on ARM and Intel-based systems.

So far in the tablet industry, Apple dominated the sales, accounting for two-thirds of the 2012 market until now. The total number of tablets that will be sold in 2012 is expected to be around 103 million, with sales increasing up to 326.3 million units until 2015. Microsoft is also expected to have a bigger share of the total tablet sales by releasing its latest operating system, Windows 8.