The best part of a year since Microsoft and Nokia confidently announced their new strategic alliance, the first handset to result has finally rolled out at retail in the UK.

Coupled with what Nokia claims is one of the firm's most extensive ad campaigns in its history, the two parties have high hopes for Lumia 800, but the buck won't stop there.

Indeed, French newspaper Les Echos is claiming a Windows 8 powered Nokia tablet will compliment the Finnish giant's smartphones, launching in summer 2012.

Waiting for Windows 8

"The wait is over - today our friends at Nokia have launched the gorgeous new Nokia Lumia 800 with Windows Phone," said Microsoft on its official Windows Phone UK blog.

"Nokia have been working on the Lumia 800 over the last year and it packs in a lot of features – a great 8 megapixel Carl Zeiss camera, beautiful design with a smooth, one-piece body plus curved and scratch-resistant screen."

The suggestion that the partnership will be further cemented by a Windows 8 tablet from Nokia is no real surprise. Les Echos claims Nokia France head Paul Amsellem admitted the unnamed tablet exists, despite no official announcement.

"In June 2012, we will have a tablet that runs on Windows 8," he said to the paper.

In the run up to Lumia 800's launch, Nokia's UK marketing director John Nichols branded Windows Phone a "fantastic" OS, with the company claiming consumer testing proved the majority of users who had experienced the UI preferred it to iOS and Android.

[source: paidContent]