Why Is Next Week’s Spotlight On The iPad mini Rather Than Microsoft’s Surface?

Slashgear’s Chris Davies says that by all rights and intents the iPad mini should be nothing more than a mid-size gap-filler between the New iPad and iPod touch, and suggests that in the context of the tablet market and post-PC computing as a whole, Microsoft’s Surface is arguably far, far more important than the iPad mini.

Davies observes that a major distinction between Windows 8 as the centerpiece of Microsoft’s next-gen OS strategy is that it’s Windows-from-the-desktop scaled-down to tablet form, as opposed to In contrast, iOS on the iPad and Android on tablets running Googles OS both being smartphone operating systems scaled-up, maintaining that while Windows RT may be a pared-back version of Windows 8, its still Windows-from-the-desktop boiled down into tablet form, and that what will be really interesting and deserving attention how well full desktop apps translate to finger-use in the real world, and whether the detachable keyboard accessories Microsoft is so proud of turn out to be essential rather than just eye-catching.

However, he says that the iPad mini is hogging the spotlight, at least partly because of the late Steve Jobs’s forcefully-expressed put-down of seven-inch tablets, and wide-based curiosity as to whether Apple can repeat its tablet magic under the constraints of offering a substantially smaller form factor at a significantly lower price.

Microsoft’s Surface OS Entry Level Memory Advantage Over iPad Somewhat Illusiory

Incidentally, 9To5Mac’s Elyse Betters reports that Microsoft offering a 32 GB Surface tablet computer for the same $499 base price as Apple’s 16GB New iPad, may not amount to the value advantage superficially apparent.

Ms. Betters cites a note by Daring Fireball’s John Gruber citing Microsoft Surface RT Test Manager Ricardo Lopez noting in a Reddit Ask Me Anything thread that once the Windows 8 OS, OfficeRT, and a bunch of apps are loaded up, you’ll be down to more like 20GB on the 32 GB Surface, while the the iPad’s iOS consumes a modest +/- 1 GB of storage space.