According to the reports of The Wall Street Journal, after Apple and Google, Microsoft is going to come up with their 7-inch Microsoft tablet. The new tablet is expected to go out for commercial production by the end of the year 2013. Rolling out a 7-inch Microsoft tablet was not originally included into the company strategy even at last spring, but the realization that the company need some product similar to the 7-inch Nexus from Google and 7.9-inch iPad Mini from Apple to compete in the market, propelled the executives to take the decision.
Nothing has been yet mentioned about the price range of this new tablet from Microsoft, but it is expected to be cheaper than the other competitors in the market. Once the tablet from Microsoft comes out, it is expected to face harsh competition from the rivals and its availability at a less price can surely add to its sales. CNET has already contacted Microsoft for confirmation of the news, but reports from the house are yet to come.
At the end of the month of March, Microsoft had announced that they were considering on relaxing the minimum resolution limit for the Windows 8 based devices. At the present standards, to get Windows 8 certification, a minimum of 1,336×768 resolution is compulsory, which the company is about to lower to the minimum resolution of 1,024×768 at 32 bits depth.
In this context, it should be pointed that smaller tablets offer smaller resolution, whereas tablets with a screen larger than 7 inches typically offer a higher resolution than 1,024×768. So this technological expansion at the part of Microsoft can be taken as the first step towards entering the market of the smaller tablets. On the contrary, Apple’s iPad Mini offers a resolution of 1,024×768, whereas Nexus 7 from Google and Kindle Fire from Amazons give a resolution of 1,280×800.
The market has an impressive knack for the smaller tablets. According to the IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker, more than half of the total number of tablets shipped to the markets in the fourth quarter of 2012 was with a smaller screen size. And as per the forecast by the Display Research, in 2013, the smaller tablets are going to overtake their bigger equivalents in sales.