It has been confirmed by Microsoft that it scrapped plans to release Surface Mini tablet this year because Nadella wanted to focus on productivity, something that a mini tablet would fail to offer.
It was during Tuesday’s quarterly results call when Microsoft CFO Amy Hood said that Microsoft’s Surface tablet revenues took a slide because an unreleased product was axed. She did not explicitly mention a Surface Mini, but the device was accidentally confirmed by a leaked user manual that actually referenced the tablet.
Hood said: "During the quarter, we reassessed our product roadmap and decided not to ship a new form factor that was under development."
Mini tablet sales, such as the Nexus 7 and iPad Mini, have boomed over the past few years, but Microsoft did not provide a smaller tablet until Autumn 2013 when the company released Windows 8.1.
Gartner predicts that the tablet market is expected to witness a relative slowdown in demand during 2014.
Tablet shipment is expected to grow 23.9% this year to 256 million units, compared to 206 million units shipped in 2013 and reach to 316 million units by 2015.
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Cooling in demand could be due to users favouring larger screen devices in mature market over the smaller ones and shift in demand for phablets in South-East Asia. Gartner research director Ranjit Atwal said: "The next wave of adoption will be driven by lower price points rather than superior functionality."
