Microsoft plans 7 inch 'Xbox' tablet to take on the iPad mini

Microsoft is developing a smaller version of its Surface tablet with a 7inch screen, it has been claimed.

The tablet is expected to go on sale later this year, and will go head to head with Apple's iPad Mini, Google's Nexus 7 and the Amazon Kindle Fire in the lucrative small tablet market, The Daily Mail reports.

It is hoped the devices could reverse the disappointing sales of the larger Surface tablet which Microsoft launched this year.

'The software giant is developing a new lineup of its Surface tablets, including a 7-inch version expected to go into mass production later this year,', The Wall Street Journal said people familiar with the company's plans had claimed.

It claims the 7-inch tablets weren't part of the company's strategy last year, but Microsoft executives realized they needed a response to the rapidly growing popularity of smaller tablets like Google 7-inch Nexus, which was announced last summer, and the 7.9-inch iPad Mini introduced by Apple last October, along with Amazon's Fire HD.

Seperate reports have specualted the new tablet could be designed primarily as a games and media device, and be branded as an 'Xbox tablet' to accompany Microsoft's hugely successful games console.
It comes amid growing concern for the future of the PC industry as consumers move towards tablets.