Microsoft Reportedly Terminates Surface Mini Project

Digitimes’ Aaron Lee and Joseph Tsai say Microsoft has reportedly called off its plan to offer a small-size Surface Mini tablet to go up against Apple’s iPad mini due to fierce competition in the smaller-screen tablet category, as well as negative responses from its brand vendor clients, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.

Lee and Tsai’s sources tell them Microsoft had finished developing the Surface Mini and also completed the product tests; but suspended mass production that had been scheduled to commence in May, and now postponed the program permanently.

The Surface Mini reportedly had a 7.5- to 8-inch display, ARM processors, and ran the Windows RT 8.1 operating system, but with brand name’ small-size tablets now commonly priced below US$100, and white-box models only around US$50, plus Apple’s upcoming 4.7- and 5.5-inch iPhones projected to dilute demand for 7-inch tablets, a presumably premium-priced Surface Mini could be expected to struggle for market share even more than its larger stablemates have.

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