On today’s SiliconANGLE’s Live NewsDesk Show, (see embed feed below or visit youtube.com/siliconangle to watch on-demand), we learn about the world’s first small-screen Windows 8 tablet that was leaked by Amazon.

Joining us now to tell us more about the first 8.1 inch Microsoft tablet from Acer is SiliconANGLE Contributing Editor John Casaretto. (See the live broadcast, embed below ~ if you missed today’s topic, check our YouTube channel for archived clips.)

The 8.1-inch Acer Iconia W3-810-1600 32 GB (Silver) tablet was briefly available in search on Amazon this past Friday. It was listed at $379.99. Why does that matter? Because all Windows 8 tablets released thus far have packed 10-inch or larger displays. Microsoft’s operating system was engineered for bigger tablet screens before smaller-is-better became the new black. Microsoft has tweaked a bevy of features and specs since the release of Windows 8 to support this trend towards smaller tablets, including the OS’s hardware certification program recently dropping the minimum allowable screen resolution for Windows 8 tablets from 1366-by-768 down to 1024-by-768.

Small-screened Windows tablets have always had one pressing question hanging over the concept like a grey cloud over eeyore: How low can they go? Competing in the not-Apple side of the tablet spectrum puts them squarely against Android tablets, which can afford to be dirt cheap because Google doesn’t force manufacturers to pay a license fee for the OS. For each and every Windows tablet built, OEMs have to pay Microsoft.

Some of the things we’ll be discussing with Casaretto include more details about the Acer device consumers were exposed to, why it’s important to consumers, how Microsoft has been preparing to get up-to-speed in the tiny-tablet realm, and if the leaked Windows Blue updates will be better equipped to handle small tablet specifications.

Image credit: PCWorld