One of the most persistent rumors regarding Microsoft’s Surface tablets is that the company would be making a 7-incher. That turned out to not be the case when the Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2 were revealed last week as both tablets feature 1080p 10.6-inch displays. Of course, the lack of a 7-inch tablet today doesn’t mean that we’ll never get one.

Surface Head Panos Paney recently had a chat with GeekWire where he revealed that Microsoft was indeed working on different Surface sizes. Here’s the relevant quote:

“We have a lot of great things that we are thinking about and working on, and there are multiple aspect ratios and sizes and awesome things to come from Surface. That’s the best answer I have for you.”

He doesn’t come right out and confirm a 7-inch tablet, but it’s the next logical step for the Surface brand. Sure, Microsoft could make a 27-inch tablet, but it can leave that kind of crazy thinking to the guys at Lenovo. For Microsoft, it needs to release a smaller, cheaper Surface tablet can compete with the 7-inch Android tablets that are currently dominating the market.

Of course, it may be a while before we see a 7-inch tablet from Microsoft as the first report we got about such a device came in April of this year. At that time, it was said that Microsoft only recently started working on a smaller tablet after seeing their explosion in popularity. From the looks of it, it’d be safe to say that we won’t be seeing a 7-inch Surface until maybe the middle of next year.

Even if Microsoft is able to get a 7-inch Surface out at that time, it might not even matter anymore. A report out of a DigiTimes Research found that the new Surface tablets may face the same fate of their predecessors. That report, however, heavily factored price into its prediction. With a lower priced Surface tablet optimized for 7-inch displays, Microsoft may finally be able to break into the tablet market that so many of its former PC customers have now moved onto.

[Image: Surface]