Microsoft reportedly aborted a plan to announce a smaller Surface tablet

A smaller Surface tablet was supposed to debut with the high-end Surface Pro 3 today.

Bloomberg is reporting that Microsoft was originally planning to introduce a smaller version of its Surface tablet earlier today in New York.

Sources told the publication that Microsoft had to pull the plug on the plan because the tablet wasn’t different enough from the other tablets in the market. CEO Satya Nadella and Stephen Elop, currently Vice President of Microsoft’s Devices & Services, also feared that the said tablet would not be a hit, Bloomberg added.

Sources who asked not to be named said that engineers at Microsoft had already been working on the smaller tablet, which is reportedly powered by a Qualcomm processor.

At the Surface event earlier today, Microsoft revealed its laptop-killer: the Surface Pro 3. FBR Capital Markets & Co. analyst Daniel Ives believes that Microsoft has a better shot of improving its sales this year with the Surface Pro 3.

“No mini is a minor disappointment to some, although we would rather Microsoft put all their eggs in the Surface Pro basket at this point. We can still see a mini at one point, but not likely until 2015,” Ives told Bloomberg.

Microsoft’s goal is to replace laptops with its Surface Pro 3. But the challenge here is to convince the average consumer to spend that much for a computing device. Toshiba, Dell, Acer, Asus, and even Apple have smaller tablets that cater to the needs of students and moderate users.

Panos Panay, Vice President of Microsoft Surface, did say that the company is working on smaller versions. However, he declined to spill more details of the company’s plans.