There’s a rumor that the paying attendees of Microsoft’s BUILD conference (coming up in September) are each going to receive a Windows 8 tablet prototype. It is already known that Microsoft will disclose more details of Windows 8 at that conference and give attendees a Windows 8 preview version.

BUILD 2011 Attendees Might Receive A Windows 8 Tablet/Slate Each

At the TechEd conference held in New Zealand, Microsoft’s principal architect — Patrick Hevesi — gave some insights into a Windows 8 tablet. IT consultant Alan Burchill took some photos of the proceedings and posted them on his blog. From there the word spread that there will be a quad-core tablet being given away at the conference.

Burchill’s photos do not show the tablet or anything similar but they were enough to start talks of a tablet being handed out to the developer who are paying to attend. It will apparently contain a test version of Windows 8 so that the developers can start working on apps for Windows 8.

Even All About Microsoft’s Mary-Jo Foley wrote on her blog about the expectation of a Windows 8 tablet or PC being given out to the attendees. BUILD is scheduled to start in Anaheim, California on the 13th of September. With Windows 8’s cross-platform approach that will make it run on both traditional PC’s and new-age tablet devices, a prototype giveaway might be a good idea.

BUILD Expected To Increase Developer Interest In Windows 8

The conference is a developer focused event where Microsoft expects to spike developer interest in the up coming OS. A healthy developer interest is already building up and a good show in Anaheim could give Windows 8 another boost.

Windows 8 has gone through a major change in the UI. To make it more viable for both platforms, it is going to use a mixture of UI elements from the traditional Windows version and the Windows Phone 7 series UI (AKA the Metro UI).

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