It’s been suggested that the Surface Mini tablet may have been abandoned altogether, as Microsoft has decided that its market segment is simply too crowded for the device to compete.
When Microsoft invited us all to a ‘small gathering’ in New York City, we of course knew exactly what to expect. The Surface Mini was already well overdue and demand for the thing was off the scale – the careful choice of wording by Redmond being the smoking gun to end all.
And that’s exactly why the Surface Pro 3’s solo debut came as quite a massive surprise to the lot of us. Even the most skeptical analysts weren’t ready for that one, which of course led to fierce speculation as to where the Surface Mini was and why it didn’t turn up for its own launch event.
Everyone of course had their own explanation, though the general consensus seemed to be that the device had been held back for reasons unknown. Be it the late readying of MS Office for Windows Tablets or a simple component shortage, most reached the conclusion that we’d at least be seeing the Mini soon enough.
If a new report from DigiTimes is anything to go by however, best not hold your breath.
Published this morning, the report suggests that Microsoft has not in fact delayed the Surface Mini – it’s abandoned its plans to launch the thing altogether. The most obvious question of course being why, but according to DigiTimes there are two pretty sizeable reasons – low interest from third-party vendors and gigantic competition in the Surface Mini’s market segment.
Now, the latter of the two is undoubtedly the most interesting as ever since the first round of Surface tablets hit the market, demand for a smaller and more affordable option was huge. The reason being that the 7-inch and 8-inch Windows tablet PC market was for a long time near non-existent – the Surface Mini could have effectively claimed the segment as its own.
Fast forward to 2014 however and the Mini would have faced huge competition from all manner of sub-$200 Windows tablets, which in turn would have thrown the device’s place and worth into question. And if this is indeed Redmond’s motivation for scrapping the Surface Mini altogether, they’ve effectively blown the mother of all opportunities simply by holding back for far too long.
Would you still be interested in buying a Surface Mini at such a late stage, or are you happy enough with the rival Windows slates already doing the rounds?