Microsoft is expected to launch an 8 inch Surface Tablet next month, possibly during the BUILD conference. There’s also a new 10 inch model expected in the third quarter, probably with beefed up specs. The info comes from Taiwanese supply chain makers.
The 8 inch Surface will rely on touch panels supplied by Samsung Electronics and Nvidia processors, while Taiwanese bigshot Pegatron will handle production. Microsoft is expected to launch the 10.x inch unit (maybe lower than 10.6 inch) at the earliest in Q3, said the sources. MS expects the initial shipments of both new model to reach one million units, so they’re more optimistic about the sales performance of the newcomers compared to the older Surfaces.
49.2 million tablets were shipped globally in Q1 2013 alone and Apple was responsible for 19.5 million of those, with a market share of 39.6%, followed by Samsung with 8.8 million units. ASUS is third and then Amazon and Microsoft, so they may at least try to beat Amazon this time, although it will be hard.
