Rumours in November suggested that Nokia would follow up its 10-inch Nokia Lumia 2520 Windows RT 8.1 tablet with a smaller model in 2014. Codenamed the Nokia Illusionist, it reportedly came with a display in the 8-inch range and ran Windows RT. It now appears that Nokia has had a change of mind and that company executives have cancelled it.
According to MyNokiaBlog and source it describes as reliable, the Nokia Illusionist would have been very similar to the Lumia 2520 in terms of specifications but with a smaller 8.3-inch display with the same resolution possibly. Like its larger sibling, it was to have a quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor and a similar camera module (6.7MP AF with Zeiss Optics?). A separate report had indicated that it would launch as the Lumia 2020 in the first quarter of 2014.
No reason has been provided as to why Nokia would cancel the tablet. While Nokia has yet to provide any indication of how well its recently launched Lumia 2520 tablet is selling, Windows RT tablets have as as whole sold poorly enough that a number of manufacturers have stopped offering such devices. It may well be that the Nokia Lumia 2520 is also not meeting sales expectations. The looming US$7.2 billion acquisition by Microsoft may also have played a role in the decision.
Microsoft is rumoured to be working on a Surface Mini for launch in early 2014. Slightly smaller than the Nokia Illusionist would have been, it is expected to come with a 7.5-inch display with a 4:3 aspect ratio and a resolution of 1,400 by 1,050 pixels. It could also come with optional 3G/4G connectivity in what could be a first for Windows tablets.
Source : MyNokiaBlog