Hundreds of lower-priced mainstream laptops with Intel's Ivy Bridge processors are expected to start shipping in June. Intel's rival Advanced Micro Devices said that new laptops priced starting at around $500 with its latest chips code-named Trinity will start shipping this quarter. The laptops will ship with Windows 7 until Windows 8 is released.

Microsoft may come forward with details on some program which would allow customers to buy Windows 7 with upgrades to Windows 8 perhaps by June or July, when laptops start shipping for the back-to-school buyers, said Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst at Insight 64.

"[Microsoft] is fairly sensitive to the issue of stalling the market," Brookwood said. "I suspect the issues of getting access to an upgrade of Windows 8 at the cost of, say, a CD will go away pretty soon."

The question of upgrading a PC to Windows 8 is complicated and will be different for those who want touch capability and for those who don't, Brookwood said.

Windows 8 has a touch interface, and the mainstream laptops released for the next couple of months may not have touchscreens. Buyers may wait for Windows 8 tablets or new ultrabooks with touchscreens, which could appear around the time of the Windows 8 release.