If you were looking forward to Windows 8 dropping in late October, Microsoft’s got an extra treat for you.

In the annual statement it makes to the US Securities and Exchange commission, the Redmond-based tech giant confirmed that its stab at tablet computing will land on 26 October, along with the latest iteration of its OS:

The next version of our operating system, Windows 8, will be generally available on October 26, 2012. At that time, we will begin selling the Surface, a series of Microsoft-designed and manufactured hardware devices.

It’s worth bearing in mind that it’ll only be the RT version of the tablet dropping on the day, with the Pro version set to land 90 days later.

We’ll be counting down the days until one of the coolest-looking tablets we’ve ever seen lands. And is soon as it makes its way to the Gearburn offices, we’ll get cracking on a review.