Microsoft's Surface moves beyond demoware
It's taken a little bit longer than expected, but Microsoft has its first customer ready to put Surface computers into public use.
Perhaps most interestingly, the first one out of the gate is not one of the company's earliest partners. Instead, it is cellular carrier AT&T that is ready to make use of the touch-screen computers.
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An example of the Surface computer set-up that AT&T plans to use in its retail stores.
(Credit: Microsoft)The company will use several counter-height units inside its cellular retail stores. The company is beginning with five stores on April 17: two in New York, one in San Francisco, one in San Antonio, and one in Atlanta. Each store will have a few of the Surface machines where customers can compare the features of different phones as well as check out service plans and view coverage maps. Currently AT&T uses laptops in the store to offer such features.
"We're in business now," said Pete Thompson, the general manager of Microsoft's surface computing unit.
Microsoft had talked about such a retail use for Surface, but in its demonstrations had featured AT&T rival T-Mobile. Thompson said that T-Mobile remains a partner, but he had no update as to when that carrier will be ready to use Surface in its stores.
And, although Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has said he wants the consumer version of Surface speeded up, Thompson said he also wants to make sure that the company doesn't disappoint its earliest customers, who are all large businesses.
Microsoft has said it is aiming to have the consumer version on shelves by 2011, as much as two years earlier than its initial plan.
"We are trying to do the right thing and accelerate where we can," Thompson said, but added, "I am very much focused on making this initial commercial plan a success without getting distracted."
As for those early buyers, Thompson said that Microsoft does have other unnanounced customers for the Surface, though he declined to name names. (One name we've heard mentioned is Disney, though Thompson would not comment on that.) He did say that we would start to see activity through partners in some additional areas, such as government, health care, and education.
At last year's partner conference, Microsoft talked about having a software development kit available by April.
Thompson said that the company has started offering a development kit for some software makers and partners, but that for the time being the kit will only be available to select developers.
"We're looking at more of a managed rollout of the SDK at this point," he said, adding that he would not characterize the software kit as being broadly available. "That's where we want to get to. I don't want to say this is a closed or managed system over time."
Although AT&T will be the first place the public can go to regularly see the Surface, Microsoft has permanently installed the machines in one other place: its own campus.
"You can just walk into most lobbies," Thompson said, adding that the company has about 15 to 20 buildings with the machines so far. "We're putting in three to five a week."
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina. 
iPhone??? I hope Ballmer is at least working out a special 'blue
screen of death' for the occasion.
$150 in Apple shares when it was on the cheap was an extremely good investment on Microsoft's part. That stock is probably 10 times what they paid for it now.
It would have been the dreaded 'BLACK screen of death for your iPhone, iPod, iMac, iTunes, iMovie, iChat and all the other Apple iStuff out there ;)
Apple crashes too and if you know what you are doing on a PC, it will crash just as infrequently as a Mac. My only Vista crash has been due to a Nvidia drivers which was a story posted on here that 30% of all Vista crashes were Nvidia driver related. Clearly not a problem with Vista, but with Nvidia. You cannot fault Microsoft for Nvidia's lack of adequate drivers... an issue that is still on going as there are games continuing to crash with the Dec 07 drivers.
promised" has been the theme for the last few years.
All of that aside though.. it would be cool to sit in front of one of
these big ass tables and play... even though the iPod sitting in my
pocket does pretty much the same thing.
This is not just a "touch screen interface" like on your precious iPods. The screen is desiring and planning to interact with objects and credit cards, aside from just fingers.
Imagine a digital dinner table where you slam your credit card on the table, the table picks up your card and displays options, and you pay the bill right on the table. Or bring your phone to a (ATT/T-Mobile, who are interested) kiosk to plop in on a table, so you can see all of your camera photos and/or phone information.
That's what Microsoft is probably eying to achieve, not your petty iPod Touch ******** PFFT. Have a nice day.
technology. Not at all. It is managed by a series of video
sensors, etc, that react to hand movements, etc. but no contact
with the table-top is required. There's nothing wonderful about
it dealing with electronics laid on it: Bluetooth and RF tags allow
that.
I would be concerned about security of my information knowing
that it's M$ planning to capture all this data.
http://www.microsoft.com/surface/
- Good point
- by Rawnchie14 April 2, 2008 10:23 AM PDT
- True about the electronic devices.
- Like this Reply to this comment
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(17 Comments)Also the thought of how the data is kept, that's a good point to bring up as well.
Hopefully something they can figure out with time. This issue is most related to the idea of using your credit cards, etc. on the MS's Surface.