Details of Microsoft's rumored Surface Mini first appeared more than a year ago, so it was expected that the product would see an official reveal at today's event. No such unveiling happened. According to Bloomberg, even though Microsoft has been developing a smaller tablet for some time, CEO Satya Nadella and Executive VP Stephen Elop backed away from the project. It's now not clear if and when it will ever come out.
Nadella and Elop wouldn't bet on a Surface Mini
Earlier reports indicated that the Mini would have been an ARM-based tablet running Windows RT, aimed at other small tablets like the iPad Mini. However, the device had already seen delays up until today's event. In the end, Nadella and Elop reportedly decided that the product wasn't different enough from the competition and probably wouldn't be a hit. Instead, efforts were focused on the bigger, better Surface Pro 3.
Panos Panay reportedly stated in an interview that Microsoft is still working on smaller products, but wouldn't go into specifics. For the time being, since Redmond only holds roughly 1.3 percent of the tablet market, it will focus all its energies on the new Surface.