MS Surface v2.0

[Fast Learner]

My point is that it was a genuine innovation in massively multitouch hardware and software. Considerably more impressive technically than anything apple has produced, yet they lacked the ability to capitalise on it.

Packing 11-finger multitouch, a dozen sensors, 2 cameras, wifi & cellular radios, 10 hours of battery life, and an operating system and software that's actually good into a device that's smaller than a pad of paper and weighs 1.3 pounds -- that people will clamor to buy, no less -- is at least as impressive as the 200-pound requires-special-ventilation burns-650-watts effectively-useless-as-produced behemoth-no-one-will-buy that is the Surface.

EDIT: And FWIW the Philips Entertaible came out in 2006, 18 months before the Surface, and did almost exactly the same thing. It also bombed. And the Mitsubishi DiamondTouch came out in 2001 and did most of what both of them do, also went nowhere.

 

[Mark CMG]

If they could make it into a networking hub for all other on-site computers as well as a charging pad for mobile devices, I could see this selling to families and small businesses once it gets closer to 2K or 3K.

 

[Fast Learner]

If they could make it into a networking hub for all other on-site computers as well as a charging pad for mobile devices, I could see this selling to families and small businesses once it gets closer to 2K or 3K.

Agreed, that would rock.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I'm not as all surprised. As Mudstrum mentioned, the surface is cool, but simply isn't a consumer-market product yet. The price is too darned high for the functionality it delivers.

Man, I really haven't been posting much lately, but I am not sure this was called for.

 

[Umbran]

Oops! Sorry! I'd give you XP to make up for that, but I have to spread it around...

 

[Kzach]

Considerably more impressive technically than anything apple has produced, yet they lacked the ability to capitalise on it.

I actually think they have capitalised on it. I could be wrong and could be giving MS more credit than they deserve, but I think they might be taking a long term approach to this. In the years since the first one was introduced, almost every new TV series, even if it's just modern day and not sci-fi, has some version or other of the device in it. I can name three just off the top of my head: Castle, Hawaii Five-O & Human Target. I wouldn't be surprised if MS has had some hand in influencing that in order to get the concept into people's minds.

The fact is that the technology simply isn't at a level where it CAN be produced for the consumer market. But they can certainly develop it and sell a few and keep on improving it and when the technology is at a level where MS can mass-market it, suddenly you'll have consumers going, "Oh, I've seen that on so-and-so show, that's awesome, I want one!"

 

[Janx]

I actually think they have capitalised on it. I could be wrong and could be giving MS more credit than they deserve, but I think they might be taking a long term approach to this. In the years since the first one was introduced, almost every new TV series, even if it's just modern day and not sci-fi, has some version or other of the device in it. I can name three just off the top of my head: Castle, Hawaii Five-O & Human Target. I wouldn't be surprised if MS has had some hand in influencing that in order to get the concept into people's minds.

The fact is that the technology simply isn't at a level where it CAN be produced for the consumer market. But they can certainly develop it and sell a few and keep on improving it and when the technology is at a level where MS can mass-market it, suddenly you'll have consumers going, "Oh, I've seen that on so-and-so show, that's awesome, I want one!"

I've talked to a few .NET developers that have mentioned working with Surface. There are some in fairly lofty consulting companies that are working with Surface. I don't have details. Just that in some places, in the corporate world, somebody is putting together solutions using it.

I suspect it'd be great for demos (as a presentation tool), etc. Coupled to other analysis/datawarehouse software, it'd be a pretty fancy tool for the big bosses to drill into data to see things.

 

[falcarrion]

The Surface was never designed for the home consumer. It was designed for businesses. That is the market they went for. And been selling to. The Natural users interface goup, (nui group) is a great website to learn about multitouch tech and to see the tables that people have designed. There you can learn when multitouch came about.