A Surface Mini Could Wake Up Windows Phone 8
techcrunch.com
techcrunch.com
"Even with a beautiful hardware and wonderful OS, it’s pretty clear that a Windows Phone 8 tablet would struggle to gain traction. Even though WinPhone 8 is growing, the platform’s app ecosystem is pretty weak. Developers are not flooding the Store with apps. The platform is relatively unknown to most consumers. And another Microsoft-made tablet platform could be detrimental to the entire operation."
Not least because it'll make the whole Windows 8 endeavour _even more_ confusing for the non-technical user. (Windows Phone 8 but not Windows 8 Desktop or Metro, by which I mean Windows 8 Style UI or Windows 8 Style UI UI, and nevermind the distinction between Windows RT and WinRT or ARM/non-ARM.)
"Developers are not flooding the Store with apps."
Yeah I can verify this, at least in terms of games - currently there are just over 1800 paid games accessible from my Windows Store (I'm in the UK). The real number is not likely to be much larger, and let's face it: it's obvious why most of the free games are free.
This is almost like going to a huge supermarket and only having two or three shelves occupied with stuff, with most of it being somewhat 'generic' and unremarkable.
With all that said, I think we can't draw conclusions from Microsoft's experiment just yet. Let's not forget that it's only been about 4 months since Windows 8 general availability, and much less for the Surfaces. It'll be some time before Windows 8 / Surface will have truly had their shot.