Is Microsoft preparing an inexpensive surface tablet against the new iPad?

Bloomberg reportedly expects Microsoft to release an inexpensive Surface tablet in the second half of 2018. Inexpensive price has received high praise from 329 dollars (taxation is 37,000 yen in Japan)New "iPad" (6th generation iPad)It is regarded as a model to combat.

Microsoft Plans Low-Cost Tablet Line to Rival iPad - Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-16/microsoft-is-said-to-plan-low-cost-tablet-line-to-rival-ipad

According to Bloomberg, the new Surface tablet terminal Microsoft is developing is a low price Surface with 10 inch size display. While the Surface Pro series so far has a 12-inch display, the new Surface is close to a more compact iPad, and the weight is expected to be 20% lighter than the conventional model. He says that the design will not be rounded like the current Surface Pro series, but will also be rounded.


The major reason why Microsoft prepares for the new Surface is that Apple's new iPad has gained popularity from the market as it responded to Apple Pencil despite its low price. According to market research firm IDC, Microsoft sold 720 million Surface tablets in the first quarter of 2018, but only 1.8% increase over the same period last year. Since 9.1 million iPads sold by Apple during that period, Microsoft has been heavily drained by Apple in the tablet PC market, and it is the new Surface that will appear to recover from this.

Depending on your way of thinking, it may be said that the small screen Surface "Surface Mini" that entered the store gets into sunlight again.

The real machine image of the phantom "Surface Mini" leaks, diversifying in the Surface series Why did not you see the sunshine? - GIGAZINE


Bloomberg anticipates that the low price version of Surface that will compete against this new iPad will cost around 400 dollars (about 44,000 yen). Considering that the current Surface Pro series is from $ 799 (88,000 yen), there is a possibility that it will have a big impact on the market as a very cheap Surface tablet.


Once, release the Surface RT series low price version SurfaceGreat failureIt is unknown at this moment what kind of specification Microsoft will make the new low price version of Surface with experience. Like the conventional Surface series, it seems likely that Intel CPU will be adopted, but the possibility of ARM version Windows can not be abandoned.

Full-featured Windows 10 that runs on ARM-based processor Snapdragon, and demonstration of Win32 applications moving crisply - GIGAZINE


As a result of leaning towards the high performance & high price Surface Pro series due to the failure of the cheap Surface, there are indications that Apple has developed the iPad Pro series, looking at the successful Microsoft in hardware products. If you look at Apple that succeeds with cheap, high-performance tablets and this time Microsoft is planning to launch a cheaper version of Surface, you want to expect performance that does not match cheap prices.