People with knowledge of Samsung’s plans tell Bloomberg that the Korean hardware giant will introduce an ARM-based tablet running Windows RT when Microsoft releases the operating system, most likely in October. The device is expected to run a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. Beyond that, few details are known.

For Samsung, which has had some bad luck with its Android tablets lately — specifically an injunction against U.S. sales of its Galaxy Tab 10.1 — a move to embrace Windows RT was inevitable.

Why not cast your lot with Microsoft as well, and hope that the company is able to replicate its desktop OS market share in the tablet space? Unlike Apple and Microsoft, Google has no real desktop OS market share to leverage here. And Android’s mounting patent issues are clearly becoming a big concern.

Not that peddling a Windows RT tablet will be all that much easier. In doing so, Samsung will be competing directly with Microsoft, which has developed a Windows RT tablet of its own, called Surface. It will also be going head to head with Asus, Dell and Toshiba, who are all expected to debut similar offerings, all at the same time.

However, sources close to both companies indicated that there was a retail strategy for the devices, as well. That’s starting to come into focus, with GameStop announcing on Friday that it has started taking preorders for the 16 gigabyte version of the Asus-made device, which costs $249.

The device is due to be available from GameStop in mid-July, the same time frame given by Google for Web orders.

Expect other retailers to announce their plans to carry the Nexus 7 in the coming weeks, sources say.

First off, Google gave the company only four months to build the product. Then there was the task of building a high-end tablet that could sell for just $200. Plus, he said, Google can be kind of demanding.

“Our engineers told me it is like torture,” Shih said in an interview on Wednesday, shortly after the Google-Asus joint project was announced. “They ask a lot.”

That said, Shih said his team has learned a ton from working so closely with Google’s engineers.

To pull off “Project A-Team,” as the tablet effort was known inside Asus, Shih sent people to work at various locations, including Silicon Valley. That put his workers closer to Google, and also allowed his engineering team to have a 24-hour development cycle. Even then, Shih said, he had to add another 20 people to the project. And then another 20.

Rubin gives Shih and the team at Asus immense credit.

“I don’t think there would have been any other partner that could move that fast.,” Rubin told AllThingsD. “We went from zero to working product in four months.”

But, having built the device, the big question now is will consumers bite?

Rubin admits that he was upset a year ago that Android tablets just weren’t selling. After looking into some of the reasons, Rubin learned that while hardware really matters on phones, consumers are buying into a content ecosystem with tablets. Or, in Google’s case, not buying into an ecosystem.

In particular, Rubin said that Google lacked some of the ecosystem pieces that were necessary, such as a full compliment of TV shows, movies for purchase, and magazines that people want to consume on a tablet.

“I think that was the missing piece,” Rubin said.

The amount of tablet-specific apps have also been an issue, but Rubin said Google is sticking with its strategy of encouraging developers to write a single app for both phones and tablets, while taking some care to make sure the layout and button size are optimized for larger-screen devices.

On the hardware side, Shih and Rubin feel they have something that can serve as a full-fledged tablet computer while competing on price with the Kindle Fire. Despite its bargain-basement price, Shih notes that the device packs a high-end laminated display, quad-core chip and other high-end features.

One way the companies managed that is through razor-thin margins. Google is selling the device through its Google Play store, essentially at cost, and also absorbing the marketing costs associated with the device.

“When it gets sold through the Play store, there’s no margin,” Rubin said. “It just basically gets (sold) through.”

However, it appears that the Nexus 7 is headed for retail shelves, as well, though only the plans for the Google Play store were announced on Wednesday.

While that kind of cost structure could make life challenging for any other hardware makers looking to sell Android tablets, Rubin insists there is plenty of room left for Android tablet innovation.

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After signaling for months that it would attack the market only through its traditional hardware partners, Microsoft has decided to enter the tablet business more directly.

The company isn’t talking about its effort, but Microsoft has scheduled an event Monday in Los Angeles, where it has promised a “major” announcement. AllThingsD reported earlier on Thursday that the event would center around Microsoft’s tablet strategy.

Sources say that Microsoft concluded that it needs its own tablet, with the company designing both the hardware and software in an effort to better compete against Apple’s strengths. Microsoft’s tablets may include machines running ARM-based processors as well as models running on traditional PC processors, sources said.

Online site The Wrap reported this evening that Microsoft will manufacture its own devices, something that AllThingsD sources have also heard in recent weeks.

The move could allow Microsoft to better match Apple’s tight integration, but it is also fraught with the potential for conflict. Microsoft makes most of its money from Windows and Office, and depends on an ecosystem of PC makers like Dell, HP, Acer and Lenovo to make those Windows-based machines.

Many of those same computer makers, at Microsoft’s urging, have been developing tablets running both Windows 8 and Windows RT — the version of Windows 8 designed to run on the ARM processors used in today’s phones and tablets.

It is unclear how Microsoft intends to differentiate its work from that being done by the PC makers, and just how they will respond. That said, it is unclear where PC makers will go.

They could focus more energy around Android, but Google is also in the hardware business, both directly through its Motorola acquisition and indirectly through its Nexus efforts, in which others manufacture devices largely designed and controlled by Google. The company is said to be working on a tablet, as well.

While Microsoft has always avoided making its own computers, it has experimented with a variety of approaches in other devices.

After failing to catch up to the iPod with a variety of hardware partners building products around Microsoft software, the company created the Zune. Although the Zune managed to grab the share once held by its partners, it never emerged as a serious threat to the iPod, and the hardware effort eventually fizzled.

On the phone side, Microsoft initially followed the PC approach, designing the operating system but giving hardware makers wide leeway to create their own devices. With Windows Phone 7, its latest entry, Microsoft has taken a far more hands-on approach, working more closely with fewer partners and demanding tight control over the kind of devices they can produce.

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The news was reported by CNET earlier this month, with additional details, including the cost, trickling out in recent days. Our sources confirm that Microsoft will offer $15 Windows Pro 8 upgrades to those buying a new PC with Windows 7 Home Basic or higher.

Redmond has offered these kinds of coupons with the past several releases, so it is not a shocker.

But with Windows 8 coming this fall — possibly as late as November — and with current license sales slowing, and Microsoft losing share to both Macs and iPads, the upgrade program could be even more important this time around.

Redmond and the PC makers are hoping that the promise of a guaranteed and easy upgrade will convince back-to-school shoppers to stick with Windows, rather than head to the competition.

The upgrade program is important for another reason: Microsoft needs Windows 8 to get off to a fast start in order to convince developers to write new Metro-style apps that only run on Windows 8. Getting more Windows 7 users on the new operating system would help that cause.

A big change this time around is how the program will operate. In the past, Microsoft has been the driving force behind the cheap upgrades, but the company left it up to computer makers to handle the specific pricing, timing and fulfillment. With Windows 8, Microsoft will handle all of those items, sources say.

Microsoft declined to comment on its upgrade program plans.

The other piece of preparing for Windows 8 is what is taking place on the hardware side. Windows 8, with its Metro user interface, is tailor-made for touch devices, though it will also work with a keyboard and mouse.

So far, this summer’s laptop offerings are punched-up versions of the same PCs that have been on the market for months, with upgrades to Intel’s Ivy Bridge chip line, and PC makers all trying to put their stamp on the trend toward thinner, lighter laptops.

Lenovo has announced more consumer-friendly versions of its business-minded ThinkPad laptop. Hewlett-Packard, meanwhile, has expanded its Ultrabook line and has slapped the term “Sleekbooks” on another set of new laptops that fall into the ultra-thin-and-lightweight category but have innards that don’t meet Intel’s specifications for Ultrabooks. Sony’s new Ivy Bridge-equipped Vaio laptops will be made with lightweight materials, include larger displays, and offer optional accessories such as an extended battery.

But PC makers will clearly be gearing up for Windows 8 so that they can start pitching the new operating system as soon as it is ready.

This fall, some hardware makers will introduce convertible PCs that function as both tablets and laptops, as noted here, or will add things like touch sensors to existing displays, in order to bridge the two operating systems.

One company that has already announced a Windows 8 laptop is Lenovo. At the Consumer Electronics Show in January of this year, the China-based PC maker showed off the IdeaPad Yoga, a laptop with a 10-finger touchscreen and a full range of motion at the hinge so when fully folded it turns into a 13.3.-inch tablet.

Overall, one can expect a lot of Windows 8-ready machines to be part of the back-to-school lineups. But expect most PC makers to hold off on design overhauls for the Windows 8 launch.

Aiming to get a sense for how powerful the tablet is, online advertising network Chitika looked at what devices it was serving ads to and found that it was almost exclusively Apple tablets.

For every 100 iPad impressions, Chitika is serving slightly more than one ad to a Samsung Galaxy and Asus Transformer Prime and under one ad to the Motorola Xoom, BlackBerry PlayBook and Kindle Fire. The Nook Tablet share is even lower, though clearly both the Nook and Kindle are marketed less as Web browsing devices and more as media consumption tools.

In total, the iPad accounted for more than 94 percent of ads, Chitika said.

It shows that not only are iPads outselling their rivals, but each one that is sold is also more heavily used, at least when it comes to Web surfing.

“Going forward the competition is going to be hard pressed to find a way to overthrow the seemingly omnipotent Apple,” Chitika said. “Not only do they offer a great product, they have the undying devotion of their enthusiasts.”