The software company are now showing a significant break from their current fixture of producing computer hardware and is determined to get ahead of Apple and Google in the fast growing tablet market - already one -eight as large as the PC Market with predictions to be 40% by 2016. Western countries are the biggest tablet buyers. Also, the lack of PC sales has slowed sales in the Window division.

Windows 8 is also set to be release this year, and is tailored to be used  on both tablet's and desktop PC's.

"If Microsoft wants to control the entire user experience and the entire quality of their products, they have to build their own hardware," Michael Cherry, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft, a Redmond-based market research firm, told the Bloomberg news service.

A recent Microsoft event in the US has also indicated the company's plans. It has been speculated that Microsoft may announce a deal using its SmartGlass, the new Microsoft app that bridges the gap between the TV and the smartphone or tablet. There is also talk of the tablet gaining access to an ebook store using Barnes & Noble's technology, following a $300m deal made at the end of April.

In other news, Google is expected to unveil an own-brand tablet at its Input/Output event on 27 June. Microsoft has declined to comment. Its invitation says: "This will be a major Microsoft announcement – you will not want to miss it."