CES: Microsoft shows off Surface 2.0
Summary: Microsoft officials demonstrated an updated, thinner version of the Surface multi-touch tabletop computer at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) on January 5.
Microsoft officials demonstrated an updated, thinner version of the Surface multi-touch tabletop computer at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) on January 5.
Microsoft officials shared a few particulars on the next-generation Surface 2.0 device, which Samsung is manufacturing with Microsoft, according to reports, during an afternoon press conference at the show.
The new Surface is only four inches thick and uses Gorilla glass to make it more durable. (Officials said the new Surface includes the biggest single piece of Gorilla glass out there.) It also is horizontally and vertically mountable, making it more appealing than the current "big ass table" Surface tabletops that are on the market -- and possibly an alternative to flat-screen TVs (or maybe even a nice adjunct to Microsoft TV, which many are expecting the company to unveil during CEO Steve Ballmer's keynote at CES tonight.)
Istartedsomething blogger Long Zheng captured some images of the Surface 2.0 in his live blog of the Microsoft press conference. Here one from Zheng's Flickr set:
(image credit: Long Zheng)
I've asked Microsoft for availability and pricing details for the new Surface tables. No word back so far.
I wondered aloud (in my blog) earlier this week whether Microsoft might show off some new Surface tablets at CES. The new thinner tables are not tablets, by a long stretch, but they seem more commercially viable than the current Surface systems -- and I'd think more likely to attract developer interest.
I'm curious whether Microsoft and its partners will continue to downsize the Surface, moving forward, and how small it will be able to go....
Update: A couple more details on Surface 2.0, courtesy of WinRumours.com. WinRumours says the new Surface is running an AMD CPU and Windows 7. WinRumours also says the new Surface will ship in 2011.
Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily email newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.
Talkback
Wow! MS Managed to do now what it was promising to do in about ...
Don't count your chickens yet...
Don't count your chickens yet... Last year Microsoft showed a Slate and said it would start shipping in 2010... So far, it's still vaporware... If they were serious about surface, they would have had a price estimate by now.
Regardless, people are not going to like it, you would have to sit close enough to be able to reach anywhere on the entire screen. And here is the rub, you would constantly have to reach all over the screen to use it. Most people don't buy a 46" HD LCD TV and then mount it 3 freet from their face nor watch it while it is resting in their lap. This one is not only vaporware, but its also a flop in its vapor state.
RE: CES: Microsoft shows off Surface 2.0
Surface is more of a research project still, not really a full fledged product. You can buy one right now if you want though, you've been able to for years, but Microsoft's only selling to companies not individual consumers.
I believe MS Surface will finally take off
<a href=http://hp-slate.com/hp-slate.htm>The HP Slate was actually released last year October</a>.
As for MS surface, it can be mounted at any angle. It will be typically mounted horizontally, and be used as a collaboration table in a range of places. It could be used throughout stores for sales people to go over product items with customers; it could be used as kiosks in customer facing departments at most businesses; it could be used throughout schools and libraries as collaboration tables / kiosks. It could be used as collaboration / planning / meeting tables throughout business. The device could be placed on a swivel mount and double as a kiosk, as well as well electronic signage in stores. It could be used as an electronic coffee / collaboration table throughout homes.
Individual units could be mounted on walls (some could be TVs), and have Kinect type controllers mounted in them, allowing them to be controlled directly via touch, or at a distance using gestures. A grid of these units could be used to create an interactive wall, etc. Therefore MS Surface has a lot of potential.
Becuase you have limited vision?
Or do you still believe that a laser pointer and a screen changing remote are still the best technologies?
:|
Waste of Microsoft's time and effort
RE: CES: Microsoft shows off Surface 2.0
RE: CES: Microsoft shows off Surface 2.0
Have you ever used one?
Try using it is the varied lighting conditions of most spaces, not the controlled light environments required to make this donkey function.
Interestingly it suffers from the two product failures of kinect, size and lighting.
Surprising MS is still throwing money at it. But I guess with nothing else to announce they continue to showcase improvements in third party hardware.
RE: CES: Microsoft shows off Surface 2.0
Actual sales?
wow, a giant iPod touch! Hooray for MS! Hooray
RE: CES: Microsoft shows off Surface 2.0
While Microsoft's stock hasn't done much in the last 10 years, even though other one-time giants like Sun have crashed and burned in the meantime, Microsoft has continued to generate record revenues and - more importantly - profits each and every year except one.
Don't be so naive as to judge a company's performance on it's stock price - that's something that's entirely at the whim of a few thousand 22 year old high-risk junkie stock-brokers.
Judge a company's performance by its profits and revenues - that's the true measure of a company's success.
bitcrazed, ShazAmerica has shown himself the fool here many a time
One day he will realize that those here have been laughing at him, and not with him.
:|
RE: CES: Microsoft shows off Surface 2.0
It's gone from a floor model tv to a first generation flat screen. C'mon man!
"Only" four inches thick?
How much does it weigh, relative to a TV of comparable size?
RE: CES: Microsoft shows off Surface 2.0
Uhm you do realize it isn't an iBauble and is a completely different type of device, right?
I'm talking about its underlying technology, not its use.
From a current Apple ecosystem consumer
Of course, the above is an example of "Apple creative vision think" and I'm not too sure if Ballmer has the ability to drive this concept forward to a successful conclusion.
But you can hook a Kinect up to a TV already
Surely the whole point of a Surface product is that you're actually touching it. So if you're touching it you don't need the Kinect, and if you're not touching it then you don't need Surface and can use your existing TV instead.