Taiwan’s HTC Corp. is planning to manufacture tablets based on Microsoft Corp’s Windows Operating System. HTC reportedly working on Windows tablets to take on Apple. The company is said to be working on two devices, a 12- inch tablet, and a 7- inch version that will be able to make phone calls. The products will be based on the Windows RT version, designed for devices running on ARM Holdings PLC’s technology. Both the 12- inch and 7- inch tablets will reportedly use Windows RT and run on chips provided by Qualcomm.

The tablets are tentatively scheduled for release in the third quarter of 2013. The introduction of a 7-inch Windows RT tablet would give Microsoft a product that could directly compete with the Nexus 7, Apple’s iPad Mini, Amazon’s Kindle Fire. If the report is true, HTC would likely be the first company to release a Windows tablet with a screen smaller than 10- inches, and it would also have the first Windows tablet that could double as a phone. The 12- inch tablet conversely, would be one of the larger Windows RT devices on the market.