Windows 8 is set to hit the market by the last quarter of 2012, likely just in time for the holiday shopping spree that sellers target to boost their financial results before ending the year.

Citing unidentified sources, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that by October this year personal computers and tablets powered by the new Microsoft operating system will be in store shelves.

Work on the OS should be completed by summer time, the Bloomberg report said.

As earlier indicated by Microsoft Windows division chief Steve Sinofsky, the new platform has been engineered to work on devices that come with processors built by both ARM Holdings and Intel.

"Our collective goal is for them to ship at the same time ... and I wouldn't be saying it's a goal if I didn't think we could do it," Sinofsky declared last month.

The report makes a lot of sense, according to Gartner analyst Michael Gartenberg, as Microsoft is a firm on a warpath to reclaim it lost glory and pitting its new OS with the new iPad version in the upcoming holiday season should serve as a viable springboard for the software maker.

Apple released the new iPad this month and is expected to dominate the tablet market until the end of the current year, with tablet computers expected to make real headway by 2013.

Obviously though, Microsoft would want its Windows 8 to start flexing some muscle before the current year ends.

"The last thing Microsoft wants to have is a situation where there are no compelling Windows tablets at a time when the new iPad looks like it's going to be a good seller for the holidays," Gartenberg told Bloomberg.

Gartner has forecasted that tablets on Windows 8 should begin asserting their presence over the next three years, probably gaining at least 11 percent of market shares while the iPad is projected to share sizes to about 46 percent.

By that time, Android devices will still be in the play, holding considerable command of the market, but Windows devices could see considerable resurgence in the few years ahead as the new platform may very well succeed in luring back interests to conventional computing experience.

Or consumers may finally realise that the computer world is beyond that of the Apple experience, with the IDC reporting on Wednesday that PC shipments would soar by five percent this year, picking from the 1.8 percent growth that was registered in 2011.

IDC analysts predicted too that more pick ups will be seen in PC shipments by 2013, moderate first in the initial six months then the rest would greatly depend on how consumers will react on the new tablet and general computing experiences pledged by the designers of Windows 8.