Lenovo will be ‘first to market’ with a Windows 8 tablet, says source
Michael Dell said that he would offer an enterprise tablet “on the exact day” that Windows 8 ships to customers, but his company may have some competition right out of the gate: We've learned that Lenovo is internally planning …
Context & Ripple Effects
This rumor lands mid-pivot for both companies. At Dell World last October, Dell laid out its plan to shift Windows 8 device plans forward as its Android efforts disappointed — and Michael Dell has since confirmed he'll offer an enterprise tablet "on the exact day" Windows 8 ships. Lenovo, meanwhile, has been circling this territory for over a year: it promised a U.S. push with the LePad back in November 2010, and its ThinkPad Tablet line has existed as confirmed product since spring 2011, alongside leaked specs of a 10.1-inch slate.
The Verge's source claims Lenovo is internally targeting first-to-market status, though the claim remains unconfirmed — no product, date, or spec is attached. The pickup across PC Magazine, Computerworld, Mashable and five other outlets shows the story struck a nerve precisely because it collides with Dell's public day-one pledge.
First-order effects
- If the internal plan holds, Lenovo would beat Dell's confirmed "exact day" commitment to market, converting Dell's launch-day announcement into second place before Windows 8 even ships.
- Dell now faces pressure to firm up its own slate's timing — its pledge was framed against Microsoft's ship date, not against a named competitor, and that cover is gone.
Second-order effects
- An early Lenovo enterprise tablet forces the rest of the Windows OEM field to treat the Windows 8 launch as a land-grab rather than a staggered rollout, compressing everyone's announced timelines toward the same day.
- Enterprise IT buyers evaluating Windows 8 slates gain two credible PC-vendor options at launch instead of waiting on later refreshes, shifting early volume decisions toward whichever vendor actually ships first.
Third-order effects
- The episode marks tablets displacing traditional laptops as the battleground where PC makers stake Windows-cycle leadership — a reversal from the LePad-era bet that Android slates would carry Lenovo's U.S. tablet ambitions.
- If first-mover claims become the standard Windows 8 playbook, Microsoft's OS launches regain their old function as synchronized reset points that reorder the PC vendor hierarchy every few years — with the caveat that the sourcing here is a single unconfirmed report.
The trend: PC vendors are treating Windows 8 as the hinge point where the enterprise tablet market gets decided, racing each other to ship rather than following Microsoft's calendar.