Digitimes reports that Microsoft has called off its plans to mass produce a small sized “Surface Mini” tablet. The reason? Fierce competition combined with negative responses from its brand vendor clients according to industry sources. Microsoft has called off the plans and it could reportedly scrap the whole Surface Mini program altogether:
“Compared to other small-size tablets in the market, the Surface Mini’s specifications have nothing in particular to boost its competitiveness and therefore Microsoft has decided to postpone the tablet’s launch and may not even launch it to the market at all, the sources said.” Notes Digitimes.
Furthermore, Apple’s plans to release 4.7 and 5.5 inch iPhones later on this year are expected to undermine demand for 7 inch tablets. Microsoft doesn’t want another Surface-flop so this could be a smart move. Plus there are already plenty of Bay-Trail based Windows 8.X seven and eight inch tablets currently available on the market from Lenovo, Toshiba, HP and so on. Microsoft doesn’t want to crowd out its partners from the Windows ecosystem or it risks undermining the future of Windows 8.X in the tablet market.
Source: Digitimes
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