Surface tabletops debut at select Sheratons
Nine or more months later than expected, the first Microsoft Surface tabletops have gone live inside select Sheraton hotels.
(In June 2007, when I saw the Surface demo at the Sheraton New York, officials said they expected the first Surface units to be installed by the end of 2007 at select properties.)
On August 13, Microsoft announced the first of the 30-inch Surface systems are now available at five hotels in Boston, Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Seattle. Each hotel is offering Sheraton-customized versions of the Microsoft-developed Surface suite of apps. Among them:
- CityTips: A mapping and local search tool.
- Sounds of Sheraton: a music tool allowing guests to create personal play lists and proide them with lobby-based digital jukeboxes.
- Sheraton Snapshots: A photo-browsing tool with stock photos of Sheraton resorts and properties.
Microsoft has said it sees lots of opportunities for Surface tabletops in retail, healthcare, automotive and other vertical markets. But until some much-needed third-party apps are available for the touch-screen Surface systems (that, don't forget, are powered by Vista under the covers), I just don't see much of a market for them.
I am hearing rumblings about a Surface development kit, something Microsoft has yet to discuss officially. Such an SDK would, one would think, expose the Surface programming interfaces and allow developers take advantage of Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) in new ways.
Any developers out there interested in a Surface development kit? Any thoughts on what might make a "killer" Surface app for the tabletop form factor?