At midnight last night, Microsoft unveiled a new, table-top, multi-touch, digital life piece of furniture named Surface. Intriguing, but hardly ready for prime time. What happens when you spill coffee on it? Or when your neighbour's four year old starts drawing on it with real markers?
Unavailable until November, save for a few promotional dates, this is sure to be another release date nightmare. Some past mistakes that come to mind are the 'success' of Zune - too little too late (but they've almost sold a hundred units!), and Vista - just way too late. (So this doesn't come off as a mac/pc flame war, remember the Mac Cube? And how many of us are really going to get an iPhone?)
You'd figure that Microsoft's entertainment division would be working on a Zune that can sell and an Xbox that doesn't die... I guess you've got to pull out the stops before a summit with your nemesis who just happened to release DRM-Free music files on the same day.
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4 comments:
hmmm. i don't know. I saw this vid earlier today, and was actually gonna email you the link! but alas, you beat me to it. This table is pretty kick ass man. Used in commercial settings, this thing could change the way shit gets done. http://on10.net/Blogs/larry/first-look-microsoft-surfacing-computing/
I saw this board, presented by a Japanese dude (i think he was japanese). Looks like he was bought out for his table, now he's filthy rich and he should be, that table is awesome.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=RPwaUp4gepU
this isnt with the guy presenting it, but thats it from back in February 2006
I agree that the retail applications can be amazing, but it seems like it's going to be so high-end that you'll probably only see it in four star boutique hotels and shops at bay & bloor. Once the products roll out in public settings, I imagine it would be impossible to use for an extended period of time, to make it worthwhile.
Imagine you're in the lobby of a hotel in a city you've never been in. The only map of the city in the hotel is on a Surface, you've got a meeting in twenty minutes and there's a line up of people seven deep, waiting to use it. What do you do, what doooo you doooo? To throw a bigger monkey wrench into the conundrum, as you are next in line, a crazy person runs up and smashes the screen with a crowbar.
I know this situation is highly improbable. All I'm getting at is as opposed to being too late (like most other problems), this one's a Johnny-come-early. I see it being used sparingly, with a security guard hovering over your shoulder. That, or using it to play solitaire -- it's what they do best!
I give it about 5-10 years before this is a far reaching and cost effective application.
Then again, as soon as the price drops and availability is high, I'll probably want one in every room of my house.
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