Microsoft will soon unveil the Surface Mini and an unnamed Intel-based tablet along with its 2014 lineup of several similar Surface tablet devices at a press conference scheduled for May 20 in New York, but so far both Surfaces' launch dates are far from confirmed.
News of the upcoming gathering was revealed last week on Bloomberg last week, which also noted that the Microsoft Surface Mini will be using the Qualcomm processor. Qualcomm already supplies processors to Samsung, another of Microsoft's rivals.
Bloomberg also reported that Microsoft will be featuring a Surface tablet that uses the Intel processor. The rumor mill has so far dubbed the mystery device the 'Surface Pro 3,' although Microsoft has not given the specific name for this tablet. Such recent developments are a strong indicator that Microsoft is breaking from Nividia, which manufactured the processors for the original Surface and Surface 2 tablets.
The first Surface tablet was released two years ago, but has not been able to mimic the success of Apple's iPad and iPad mini tablet devices. Besides Apple, rivals such as Google, Samsung and Amazon have already given Microsoft a run for its money. The Surface series will have to contend with a plethora of devices that include the Samsung Galaxy Tab series, Amazon Kindle, and Google Nexus 7. There are also rumors the Google is getting ready to launch its next-gen tablet, the Nexus 8, in as early as September this year.
