Microsoft’s reveals 40-Inch Digital Surface 2.0

Microsoft Surface has long been one of the more puzzling parts of the tech giant’s sprawling family of products. A hefty table with a computer and giant touch-sensitive screen, it seemed to be a piece of furniture as much as it was a high-tech device.

Now Microsoft has totally redesigned the Surface and slashed its price, making it a lot easier to imagine more practical uses for it – as a way to access interactive applications in retail stores, banks and hotels, for example. The company first showed the new version of Surface on Wednesday before the start of CES, and it then began giving hands-on demonstrations of the thinner, cheaper model.

blogs.wsj.com...

I have done a Surface 1.0 project which will be deployed in the next couple of weeks. It was a great idea, but a bit of a beast. Low resolution, running on vista, and yeah, a big box. This new version is, simply put, WOW.

I look forward to working with this unit. If it lives up to expectations, we should see these start popping up just about everywhere in the next 18 months.


Also check out the marketting video to get a feel for some of the unit's capabilities: www.microsoft.com...

Found the video on youtube...

It'll never take off because people sitting on one side of the table would have an upside down image of what the person on the other side is looking at - so that would bugger up your conference.

What company in our day and age, a time of deep recession, would want to spend money on this white elephant? Surely It would only serve to baffle their employees and customers? I'm not surprised the price has been slashed on it.

reply to post by Silver Star


Actually, it has been around for a while in it's V1 form. This is more slim and better resolution. In addition, users can grab a window and sping it around if they want. I have never really had any trouble adjusting to the Surface concept from a usability point of view.

Also, this new version can hang on the wall as well.

reply to post by Silver Star


Actually, it's price has been reduced by like 50% and it has caught on with a few companies (per the links in the OP)

Minority Report here we come!

reply to post by Juston


My customers are excited. This new format offers a lot of opportunities. I am still a bit giggy (is that a word) about the idea of being able to "see" without the use of a camera.

Originally posted by Silver Star
It'll never take off because people sitting on one side of the table would have an upside down image of what the person on the other side is looking at ...

That's the same reason regular tables never took off.