Microsoft will launch a new line of Surface tablets later this year, including one or more smaller 7-in. devices, according to the Wall Street Journal. The report was published just hours after research firms IDC and Gartner spelled out a "brutal" first quarter for PC shipments. IDC pegged the three-month period at a decline, year-over-year, of 14 percent, the biggest contraction since it began tracking PCs nearly two decades ago.