Microsoft lowers the requirements partners must meet in 7- or 8-inch Windows 8/RT tablets-- such devices must handle minimum resolutions of 1024x768 instead of the previous resolution requirement of 1366x768.

"This doesn't imply that we're encouraging partners to regularly use a lower screen resolution," the March Windows Certification Newsletter says. "In fact, we see customers embracing the higher resolution screens that make a great Windows experience... partners exploring designs for certain markets could find greater design flexibility helpful."

The move no doubt points towards the popularity of inexpensive, smaller tablets currently on the shelves, such as the Nexus 7, iPad mini and the Kindle Fire.

The lower display resolution does sacrifice one Windows 8 feature-- snap, the handy multitasking option allowing users to run x2 apps next to each other. However one would still be able to snap apps if a tablet is attached to an external display supporting resolutions of 1366x768 or higher.

Samsung is set to rival Apple in yet another market segment-- wearable electronics. The Korean giant confirms with Bloomberg it is currently hard at work designing a smartwatch device of its own.

"We've been preparing the watch product for so long,” Samsung mobile business VP Lee Young Hee says. “We are working very hard to get ready for it. We are preparing products for the future, and the watch is definitely one of them.”

Lee Young Hee gives neither hardware nor launch date details on the device, whose confirmation follows recently revealed rumours on a supposed Apple smartwatch.

Currently the biggest smartphone maker in the world, Samsung will launch three high-end handsets in 2013, including the Galaxy S 4 and Tizen-based device. But as the $358 billion mobile market reaches saturation, it comes to no surprise the industry is rushing towards new product offerings. Samsung's Lee puts it best, telling Bloomberg "the issue here is who will first commercialize [wearable technology] so consumers can use it meaningfully.”

Go Samsung Preparing Wristwatch as it Races Apple for Sales

Go Are Watches a Bigger Opportunity for Apple?

If Microsoft has its way, Surface devices will be omnipresent-- not only tablets and smartphones, but as wall-sized touchscreens and interactive tables, all of which smart and seamlessly connected.

Such a vision comes from the trailer announcing the opening of the new  Microsoft Envisioning Centre, whose mission is creating not the next generation of Microsoft computing, but products for the next 5 to 10 years.

According to the 2 minute video nearly every available surface is interactive, since giant touchscreens pepper the walls both offices and homes. All the displays are interconnected, meaning users can instantly beam and interact with data from tablets and smartphones (such as family photos or work schedules) on the bigger screens.

Meanwhile children play on tablets as they watch grandma read bedtime stories (which in turn unfold on screen as interactive cartoons) on the living room TV.

A smartwatch might prove to be the next big thing for Apple, Bloomberg says-- it might prove to be a far more lucrative device than a TV can ever manage to be.

Citigroup analysts tell Bloomberg watches not only are provide opportunity for Apple to create something entirely new (as in "something consumers didn’t even know they needed”), but also provide superior profit margins within a less competitive market than TV, at least when it comes to the luxury-goods retail.

Not to mention the watch industry appears to be in rude health, unlike TV...

The newspaper also reports fresh rumours on the device-- Apple has 100 designers working on the project, design boss Jony Ive is busy studying sports watches from the likes of Nike, and the company owns "at least" 79 patents with the word "wrist," including one for a device with a flexible screen and another using kinetic power.