Apple should better watch out for its new rivals in the tablet market, Microsoft Surface Pro 2 and Pro Mini, as rumours suggest that the devices will include a quadcore Snapdragon 800 processor.

The Cupertino-based company long dominated the tablet market due to the quality and speed of its products. However, Microsoft is slowly becoming a stiff competitor for the company with the release of its high end devices.

According to some sources, Microsoft will include Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processors, which deliver high performance, low power, and integrated 3G/4G LTE capability for the next Windows RT 8.1 tablets, convertibles and notebooks.

"Qualcomm Technologies and Microsoft will continue to work together on the next level of advanced mobile computing and Microsoft will offer a free software update to Windows RT 8.1. The free update will be available in the Windows Store later this year," the official statement from Qualcomm reads.

Reports claimed that internet giant Microsoft is planning to launch Surface Pro 2 and Surface Mini to battle against the upcoming iPad 5, iPad Mini 2. Successors of the Microsoft Surface Pro and a new 7 or 8 inch tablet are on its way, according to reports. Rumours also suggest that these tablets will hit the market pretty soon.

The decision may be due to the unexpected popularity of Microsoft Surface Pro across the world, especially among business executives and officials in many companies.

Announcement of Microsoft Surface 2 is expected to take place at the upcoming Build Developer Conference that will take place from June 26 to 28, where more details about the projected Windows Blue update are also expected. Supply chains have leaked clues about the potential second upgrade of Surface.

According to tech blog DigiTimes, the Surface tablets will release both 7-inch and 9-inch variants, respectively targeting Google Nexus 7 and Apple iPad. For a long time, it has been said that the Redmond software giant is to uncover a midsize Windows 8 tablet.

"Sources also noted that the second-generation Surface devices reportedly will only feature 7- to 9-inch displays to meet the rising demand for smaller tablet devices," stated the report from DigiTimes, which referring to sources said that Microsoft retained most of its earlier OEMs to build the next gen Surface tablet.

According to rumours, Microsoft will be powered by Intel processors with reports citing that the tablet to include Intel Core i5. Surface Pro 2 and Surface Mini will run with the updated version of Windows OS. The devices will also sport internal storage up to 128 GB.

Microsoft Surface Pro 2 and Pro Mini are speculated to be released later this year. iPad 5 and iPad Mini 2 are also speculated to be launch in Q3 and Q4 this year.

However, no official statement was released from both tech companies.