Microsoft Corp. has announced that it will exhibit its coffee-table-shaped “surface computer” at Wall Street Journal’s “D: All Things Digital” conference on Wednesday. The ideology behind this innovation is to replace mouse and keyboard by more natural interaction using voice, pen and touch. Microsoft Surface has a 30-inch display under a hard-plastic tabletop. You can touch and move objects on screen. It can help you place your order from the carte du jour in a restaurant.
Interesting to know, Microsoft Surface can interact with the devices placed in its surface. The cell phone users will be benefited by getting access to latest ringtones, or change payment plans by placing their handsets on in-store displays. It will run the Windows Vista operating system.
“We see this as a multibillion dollar category, and we envision a time when surface computing technologies will be pervasive, from tabletops and counters to the hallway mirror,” Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said in a statement. The targeted customers would initially be corporate customers.
Company aims at deploying the first units in November in Sheraton hotels, Harrah’s casinos, T-Mobile stores, and restaurants. Currently it will be sold at a price ranging from $5,000 and $10,000 each but they are saying that they will try to bring prices down to consumer levels in three to five years and introduce various shapes and forms.
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6 Responses to 'Microsoft’s coffee-table-shaped computer'
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How is this different from a regular cvomputer besides size? Where are these sold?
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I know that eventually this type of computer will be common-place for an increase in productivity and the ability to multi-task more easily. However, I think that what Microsoft is missing here is the overall knowledge of the computer users that are already out there. Now I’m not saying that we’re all in newbie stage, but the majority of people who are using computers in their daily lives do the follow tasks:
- Read/Write e-mail
- Surf on the internet
- Go into chat rooms
- Instant Message
- Play multi-player games
As far as productivity (business-wise), I would say the percentage is hovering around 25-30% of all computer users max. Of course, when this does get out of limited release and is out on the actual marketplace, there will be people purchasing it (the 1% of US society for example aka the uber-rich), but until a time where it would be incorporated into home-use, this is more of a luxury rather than a replacement of the actual desktop/laptop. I give it a solid 10-12 years from now.