Samsung to launch Windows 8 tablets

South Korean electronics giant Samsung is set to launch tablet PCs based on the Windows 8 operating system during the later half of 2013, a top company executive said on Tuesday, Vivek Sinha reports.

South Korean electronics giant Samsung is set to launch tablet PCs based on the Windows 8 operating system during the later half of 2013, a top company executive said on Tuesday.

Windows 8 is Microsoft's newly launched operating system that enables touch-based user operations.

Until now Samsung had largely focused on Google's Android operating system for its touch-based smart phones and tablets. Samsung, however, quickly dismissed any "strategic shift" at the company from Google's Android in favour of Microsoft's Windows 8.

"Sometime during the later half of 2013 we plan to launch tablets based on the Windows 8 operating system," Jin Park, vice president of IT solutions at Samsung Electronics said. Park added that these tablets would be in the "affordable" price range and refused to divulge further information on the price points.

Park was in New Delhi to launch company's new range of Windows 8-based notebooks that include the newly branded "ATIV" series, which can double up as touch-based tablet and a notebook.

Other Windows 8-based notebooks launched by Samsung included Series 9 and Series 5 ULTRA Touch."Windows-based devices allow for easier content creation," he added explaining the rationale for launching a slew of products based on Microsoft's operating system.

The company is betting big on India for its IT products business. At present Samusng's IT business in India contributes around 5% revenues to its global IT products revenue.

"We expect this percentage to touch double digits by 2015," said Park.