And now we see another good reason for Microsoft to not release the Surface mini tablet. ITWorld reports that Lenovo has already stopped selling its two smaller Windows-based tablets in the United States because there simply isn’t any demand for them. The decision comes to yank the smaller Windows tablets even though both of them — the ThinkPad 8 and the Miix 2 — haven’t even been out for a year.
That said, there is a bright side here: Lenovo says that it is seeing some strong demand for its larger Windows-based tablets such as the ThinkPad 10 in the United States while also noting that demand for the ThinkPad 8 is strong in markets such as Brazil, China, and Japan.
Lenovo’s decision to stop selling its smaller tablets in the U.S. is interesting because Microsoft has for now decided to only manufacture bigger tablets such as the Surface Pro 3 while scrapping plans to release a Surface mini. This may show that Microsoft’s best bet to make a dent in the tablet market isn’t to compete with super-cheap Android tablets such as the Nexus 7 or the Amazon Kindle Fire but to instead make larger tablets that it can pitch as laptop replacements to prospective buyers.
