As the release of the next iteration of Microsoft’s Windows operating system nears, a few major questions remain unanswered. Specifically, nobody quite knows when Windows 8 will be releasing to the public. Late summer seems a likely candidate, but no one is quite sure. Similarly, nobody knows exactly when Windows 8 – which is designed to offer a unified desktop/tablet/phone experience – will be coming to mobile devices.

A recent report, though, appears to confirm that the Windows Phone 8 will be arriving on Nokia Lumia phones by year’s end. Israeli publication Techit (Google Translation) is reporting that Nokia Lumia handsets running WIndows Phone 8 will be arriving in Israel and elsewhere by the end of 2012. The news, apparently, comes from Eurocom Nokia, a company that handles distribution of Nokia’s products. Of course, as Ubergizmo points out, Eurocom Nokia is only affiliated with Nokia, and is not actually Nokia itself. As such, this could still turn out to be just a rumor.

Given what little we do know about the Windows 8 release schedule, though, the timeline does seem to make sense. If Windows 8 hits sometime in the third quarter – say, around August or September – then it stands to reason that Windows 8 tablets and Windows Phone 8 phones would start to hit the market sometime in the late third quarter or early fourth quarter.