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Windows 8 tablet war has manufacturers fighting to be the first

Tech bloggers had nothing but great things to say when Microsoft debuted the Windows 8 operating system last month at Mobile World Congress.

Well, that may not be entirely true.

"Windows 8 is a breeze to use," shared Seth Rosenblatt of CNET. "It's tricked out with social networking and synchronization, it's robust enough to handle Photoshop, it gracefully moves from touch to keyboard and mouse, and it's got some top-notch security. Despite what Microsoft is calling strong interest from hardware manufacturers and developers, however, its impact is still uncertain at best."

The market impact of a Windows 8 tablet seemed to be the only impediment worth noting. And perhaps for good reason, considering that Apple maintains market dominance, and Microsoft's hint at strong interest from manufacturers was the only detail on a Windows 8 tablet that we had to work with.

But a recent report from The Verge may shed some light on the marketability of a Windows 8 tablet. Turns out Microsoft wasn't kidding. Not only are several of today's top hardware manufacturers showing interest, there's a brewing battle to be the first to launch a tablet running Windows 8. And if that's not a sign of the tablet's potential, we're not sure what is.

"We've learned that Lenovo is internally planning to be the very first manufacturer to release a Windows 8 tablet," reveals Sean Hollister, "and that the company believes that October is when the operating system will ship."

Lenovo's plan to produce a Windows 8 tablet comes on the heels of Dell's announcement to do the very same.

"We're very encouraged by the touch capability we are seeing in the beta versions of Windows 8," Dell CEO Steve Felice told Reuters. "We have a roadmap for tablets that we haven't announced yet. You'll see some announcements for the back half of the year."

Hewlett-Packard, Nokia and Asus join the list of interested parties, but you have to anticipate a few more will come forward. With all of these manufacturers just chomping at the bit, it's safe to assume that the industry is expecting big things from a tablet running on Windows 8.

How important is to be the first at the party, though? Better yet, is it really that beneficial to beat the tortoise to the finish line?

There's no doubt that the first Windows 8 tablet release is going to pique plenty of interest. But as our tech blogger Marc Saltzman explains, "technology is always a work in progress, and new issues crop up — often when it's already in the hands of vocal consumers."

In racing to beat the bunch, the brass at Lenovo run the risk of pushing an unfinished product, and nothing irks a techie more than a new gadget riddled with bugs (just ask those who purchased a BlackBerry Playbook when it first hit the shelves).