I have no info that is not public. Office will definatley ship the same time as Windows. I think you're also right about WP8 being a subset.

As for time, I think Microsoft may push to get product out for back to school. If they can't get there, October is as good a guess as any. Certainly in time for hoilidays.

There are other products shipping this year too. SQL Server 2012 goes out next month. SharePoint will ship the same time as Office. I think Visual Studio will lag a bit after Windows, but not by much. And if I remember hearing correctly, Windows Server 8 will ship at the same time as desktop/ARM.

There has yet to be an Android-based tablet that is making any kind of a dent on iPad. I'm not holding my breath that Google's device will fair any better. Their own phones were pretty much DOA. The only Android tablet that has done anything is the Kindle Fire. I also think that some of the current Android phone manufactuers will bail on Android once Google's Motorola purchase is finished.

>Yes, but it's not clear yet as to what degree of functionality that it will include. It would seem it would be more like the web version of office rather than the full version of Office Desktop for x86 (non-ARM), but we don't know as it is in a limited private beta. I think they will likely release Office 15 at the same time they release Windows 8 for Intel and ARM computers, and my personal guess is October.
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>I also think they will release Windows Phone 8, based on a subset of Windows 8. I expect WinPhone8 will change over WinPhone 7.5 but they will keep WinPhone 7.x apps still run (compatible). I'd be curious if Craig has any info or predictions that differ.
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>Think about how important this year is for Microsoft, in what they ship (big changes in Windows, Office, and Windows Phone, and probably Office 365 - and the developer tools (VS/.NET) that support it all. Keep in mind that the overwhelming majority of Microsoft's revenue comes from businesses/enterprise, not consumers. So next year will be very interesting for MSFT earnings reports and adoption of their new platform and products.
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>Google is probably going to release their own tablet device, and they are working on some home entertainment system.
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>There will probably be a mega war between Apple, Microsoft, and Google for the holiday shopping season of personal, home, and business electronic sales this upcoming fall/winter. :)
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>BTW, I came up with a term recently, smartphone biggot. This is for those people who judge or criticize someone else for what phone they use. For example, "you use an iPhone? you must be elitist or posh." "Oh, you use an Android, you must be anti-establishment." "you use a Windows Phone? insert comment here". "You don't have smartphone???"