Surface Mini has been grabbing headlines for months now, but without any proof of existence and it is once again back on the rumour-treadmill – this time with claims that it back in production for an anticipated summer launch.
“Microsoft Surface Mini is back in production, in anticipation of a summer release”, reads a tweet by evleaks. The tweet doesn’t give us a specific release timeline, but considering that it is from @evleaks, there could be some credibility to the leak like his previous ones.
Microsoft Surface Mini rumours starting cropping up last year with reports from multiple sources about a possible release and subsequent launch. There were reports that even though Microsoft manufactured quite a few Surface Mini units, they are all stashed away in a warehouse somewhere.
Reports about Surface Mini launch alongside Surface Pro 3 unveil didn’t prove to be true either. One of the reasons cited by analysts behind absence of Surface Mini was the acute competition in the 7-inch tablet segment. Apple iPad Mini, Amazon Kindle Fire and Google Nexus 7 are among the top tablets in the segment alongside countless other branded and whitebox slates.
Despite claims by @evleaks, Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet claims through her unnamed sources that a summer unveil of Surface Mini isn’t going to happen. The primary reason she cites for a Surface Mini no show in summer this year is the absence of touch-first Office for Windows.
Foley claims through her sources that Surface Mini isn’t off the table completely, but it won’t debut until 2015 at the earliest.
