Could we finally see a Microsoft Surface Mini this summer?

It’s been rumoured for over a year, but speculation about Microsoft’s alleged Surface Mini tablet has heated up again after long-time leaker @evleaks tweeted: ‘Microsoft Surface Mini is back in production, in anticipation of a summer release’.

There were reports from multiple sources that the elusive device would finally be revealed alongside the launch of the Surface Pro 3 tablet back in May, but that didn’t prove to be true. Several sources claim that was the original aim of the event until Microsoft backed out at the last minute, and that there are at least 15,000 units locked up in a warehouse somewhere.

As Techradar pointed out before this latest round of rumours, Microsoft’s most recent financial report showed that their Surface revenue grew over 50% during the first quarter of 2014, so a pocket-sized (well, almost) version would be likely to build on this success. But that only puts more pressure on the company to get it right, given the popularity of existing 7 inch tablets like the Kindle Fire, Google Nexus, and… I think someone makes a tablet with ‘mini’ in the name already?

Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet says that if a smaller Microsoft tablet is unveiled it won’t be until 2015 at the earliest. To be fair, @evleaks didn’t say which summer he was talking about…