Microsoft making its own Windows 8 Tablet?

It's rumoured that the software giant Microsoft will launch its own in-house branded Windows 8 tablet. The report comes from The Wrap, where its believed Microsoft is preparing to rival the Apple iPad with its own hardware and software combination.

The company has scheduled a secretive event for Monday at 3:30 p.m. June 18 in Los Angeles, where it will make a "major" announcement whose nature has not been disclosed. Even the venue has not yet been announced.

But an individual with knowledge of the company said that Microsoft would introduce a Microsoft-manufactured tablet at the event, marking a foray into a new hardware category that would put the company in direct competition with giant rival Apple.

Microsoft's tablet is rumoured to be powered by an ARM microprocessor, and will run Windows RT (which is a version of Windows 8 specifically designed for the ARM processor architecture). ARM processors are more energy efficient than Intel & AMD's x86 processors, but are incompatible to traditional Windows applications. It is unclear if Microsoft will also launch an Intel/AMD tablet that is capable of running the full Windows 8.