Microsoft will ship its public beta of Windows 8, otherwise known as Consumer Preview, on February 29 at the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona. The OS will have a two-hour event devoted to it starting at 3PM, according to invitations sent . The date lines up with Microsoft’s previous promises of a late February release, if only just.
When the final version of the OS is not being made public, though it’s expected sometime this fall. The developer preview of the operating system was released in September, with the public beta now slated for February 29 and a Release Candidate still due before the final version is ready to ship.
Whether both x86 and ARM versions of the OS are released at the same time isn’t made official either, though it is likely.