Microsoft announced a new product today: Surface. The concept is simple: a giant touch screen that can accept input from multiple fingers as well as regular objects. This product has real potential for Microsoft’s future.
What’s interesting is that this is essentially a new operating system. Gone is the Start Bar, Outlook, MSN messenger, IE, and other familiar Windows components. It doesn’t even matter if it is running Windows or Linux because software for Surface is clearly unique to it alone. Granted, Surface may use Windows, but their approach makes them resemble Apple. Microsoft just developed a stealth OS built specifically on hardware they designed — by going the integrated route, Microsoft just pulled an Apple.
It starts off tame: managing photos and videos through a drag and drop interface. Rotating, scaling, and emailing the photos with one finger. Then they show you how browsing music and building a play list is easier than ever. Yawn. But keep reading.
It gets real interesting when they place a Zune on it and start dragging music into it. They put a camera on it and all of the pictures “fall out” for managing. Brushes are used to draw. Files are dragged and copied from one camera to another.
It takes a bolder step when they show it recognizes phones placed on it, allowing for instant price comparisons. Any product with an RFID tag could probably use this interface. Displaying additional information such as videos and reviews would be a natural next step.
Suddenly this product has a real benefit to retailers nationwide – the ability to use dynamic media to convert curiosity into a sale.
They continue with demos showing a man use Live Maps to chart out a day plan and then drag it into a cell phone. They show how restaurants might use it to let people digitally order. They even thought of splitting a bill using multiple credit cards by simply dragging items to your card.
It has uses in education, entertainment, retail, dining, and the home. In short, its a new personal computer with an interface that makes sense to people of all ages. Anywhere a computer is used now, this has the potential to replace it.
Most of the time, when Microsoft releases new products, I think to myself that they are just marketing something old in a new way. But Surface is different. Granted, the technology behind it is not new, but the “stuff on the table” idea (probably patented like crazy) makes this technology good to great.
The product is due out in Winter 2007. If they do this right, it could be their next “big thing.”
to be honest, i doubt they want to be pricing it low. they need slow expansion of this so that they can let the technology fully mature. this is version 1.0, and MS is famous for releasing crap until v3.
Looks pretty damn amazing actually. If they can get it to a price point where it’s going to be a viable for small businesses they will be onto a winner. Unfortunately I think they will probably price themselves out of the market for a few more years at least.