It's only fitting that a major leak springs the same day we learn about the world's first Windows Phone 8 device. Mary Jo Foley sure has impeccable timing, relaying information from a reliable source who has outlined Microsoft's game plan for basically the rest of the holiday season.

In her report, Foley reveals that several key events will be taking place at around the same time which is in late October. The day before Windows 8 launches (October 25th), Microsoft will be hosting an event in New York in order to ring in the new operating system's release with a big announcement as well as the true product launch of the Surface tablets.

Then the focus shifts to Windows Phone, which is where things get interesting. Just four days after that New York event on October 29th, Microsoft will be on the west coast to give Windows Phone 8 the official launch event it deserves. Foley says this will be considered the consumer launch, which is a bit odd if next week is also supposed to cover similar territory. Regardless, the first phones will become available "starting a week or two later" -- so past rumors of an early November launch look to be on point.

Finally, we couldn't forget about BUILD 2012 and Microsoft didn't either. Unfortunately the source doesn't reveal any info about what the big developer-focused event could reveal, since both Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 will supposedly be out/fully revealed by the October 30th start date. Still, it's shaping up to be a busy few weeks at the end of October, not unlike the week we're expecting ahead of ourselves right now.

Mary Jo Foley is a pretty credible source and since she's reporting this as a fact, we'll be taking it on good faith. We are concerned that there's no mention of a September 30th event that was supposedly leaked from an internal memo, which makes us think one of these reports is inaccurate. Whatever the case, let's just focus on surviving the next week or so, okay?

Source: CNET