It was a few days ago that Microsoft confirmed that they are all set for the Windows 8 RTM which is expected in the first week of august.They also announced that the General Availability however will be from late October,without giving a specific date.

Image Credits[Microsoft]

Today as reported on their official Windows Team Blog , Steven Sinofsky finally confirmed the launch date for Windows 8 Public Release at their   annual sales meeting,so it will be launching on October 26th 2012.So along with the operating system release we will also see the various hardware releases for Windows 8,ranging from the desktops,All in One’s,Laptops,Tablets and the Hybrids.

We will also see the launch of Surface Tablets (Win RT based),since Microsoft has already announced that the WinRT version of Surface Tablets will go on sale along with the general availability of Windows 8.Though the Intel version of the Windows 8 Tablet would be released 90 days after the initial release of WinRT tablets.

Microsoft has already announced the upgrade offers for Windows 8 Pro,so the existing customers with a valid Windows XP,Vista or Windows 7 license can upgrade their PC to Windows 8 Pro for just 39.99$ till 31st January.

Source[WindowsTeamBlog]