In about 12 hours from now, Microsoft’s main men will take over the stage and perform an important announcement that we know nothing about. Shrouded in mystery lays a brand new product, that’s pretty much an enigma right now. Fresh speculations are saying that it could be a white box tablet PC.

Last I heard people were speculating that it could be a Nokia tablet with Windows 8… Sources from upstream supply chain are saying that the product announced today is most likely a Windows RT-based white box slate, that will be used as a standardize design. It could be the template for all Win 8 models to come and it could be made by Nokia… or even get a Barnes & Noble branding along the way, since we’re at it.

A while ago Barnes & Noble got $300 million in investment, as they were preparing their book portofolio for Windows 8. Could we see one of the white box models being turned into a B&N Nook with Win 8? That seems remote, but not impossible. The white box tablet PC strategy kind of contradicts the Windows on ARM project, that will require 3 major ARM chip makers, but Microsoft could have changed its strategy along the way.