Microsoft Challenging Apple’s Multi-touch
Microsoft has just recently announced a touch-sensitive coffee table-shaped computer called “Surface.”
The idea is to have a computer system operating without the need of a keyboard and mouse and simply allow users to touch the screen in order to perform certain tasks, and it’s made all the more efficient with the use of multi-touch technology, although no doubt with a different name than Apple’s patented Multi-touch. For those who aren’t quite up to scratch with the latest technology news, multi-touch technology allows users to place a number of fingers on the screen at one time, while also working out when a user has accidentally touched the screen with a stray finger and canceling out the action.
Microsoft plans to aim “Surface” toward corporate users over the next couple of years, including such places as casinos, phone stores, and the like, at around $5,000 to $10,000 (£2,500-£5,000). There is then the hope of offering it to home users within the next three to five years at much cheaper and more affordable prices.
I’ll leave my reservations on “Surface” until I read some in-depth reviews, but the idea does sound like it’s trying to take the world of computing, as we know it, forward.
With Apple releasing the iPhone in around a month’s time now with its patented multi-touch technology, there has been some speculation that the multi-touch could be implemented in Apple’s upcoming operating system, Leopard, now due out in October. If this is the case, then Apple will no doubt be updating their Mac line-up to allow the technology to work effectively.
Touch screen and a virus
If this is how home computing is going to function in the next decade or two then I’d like to know that the software is going to work reliably. On-screen keyboards that fail to work because of a virus are no good at all and it’ll be impossible to restore the system to default settings without some external device controlling the computer. At this point it’s all well and good having a nag at Microsoft and its Windows viruses, but let’s be realistic here: in 10 years Apple is going to be a much bigger company than it already is, with OS X market share soaring higher than present, so there is no doubt in my mind that Anti-Virus software will be required. How will touch-screen technology without a keyboard and mouse fare then?
Touch screen but with a keyboard and mouse
One could stress that touch-screen computers can exist with a keyboard and mouse, a good example being Hewlett Packard’s IQ779 “Crossfire” PC, announced last year, which holds a 19” touch screen monitor on top of a standard computer (mouse and keyboard included). Very handy I hear you say, but the novelty of that will soon wear away when it becomes apparent that using a keyboard and mouse is both less of an effort and most likely more productive. Raising your hands to a monitor for an hour at a time to finish off that business assignment is going to work those shoulder muscles like you won’t believe—soon time to buy some protein shakes to ease up the soreness I think, folks.
Can touch-screen and keyboards live peacefully together? I really don’t think so. Perhaps using the touch-screen on an irregular basis would work, but are you really going to fork out an extra few hundred dollars just for irregular work? I didn’t think so, unless you’re Mr. Rich.
For casinos and shops only?
Microsoft plans to introduce “Surface” to home users within three to five years and to be quite honest, I say leave it to the corporate guys. Places such as casinos, supermarkets, phone stores, and restaurants would very well benefit from such technology where keyboards are perhaps less prominent, so I’ve no doubt Microsoft will find success here, but in homes? Think again.
Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, said of “Surface,” “we see this as a multi-billion dollar category, and we envision a time when surface computing technologies will be pervasive, from tabletops and counters to the hallway mirror.” All good ideas start out with a dream, I suppose.
According to BBC News, “Surface” will be available in November in the U.K. in such places as Sheraton Hotels, Harrah’s casinos, T-Mobile stores, and numerous restaurants. I’ll be on the lookout for them.
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Comments
When buying this for your living room, I suggest you ensure beforehand that the rest of the furniture visually matches the inevitable BSOD.
Sorry, couldn’t resist…
Let me preface my comment with the inevitable “If Apple had announced this, the fanatics would literally be pissing themselves from orgasmic overload.” Since it’s MS, then it must be greeted with an incredulous “why would I want this?”
Also, neither MS nor Apple invented multi-touch screens. MS has implemented it in a corporate product, and Apple has implemented it in a consumer product. Both interesting and useful and innovative.
With that out of the way…
I agree with you about the limits of multi-touch in home computing to an extent (I can’t image writing out a term paper or the Great American Novel on this thing), Surface has a couple of other features that are much more compelling.
I’m more interested in the wireless thing with the camera and other devices. Just setting your camera down on the table and having Surface automatically download the pics and lay them out like that is nifty. I can see updating cell phones, your mp3 player, and other kinds of devices.
Just like Visual Voicemail is the killer feature in the iPhone, that’s the killer feature in Surface - at least in terms of home computing.
I think the idea is very interesting and does have potential to be ‘the next big thing in computing’ however a lot of it will depend on how the technology is delivered and how revolutionary the interface will be. If the touch screen is just simply to replace the mouse and keyboard it will fail. However if a new way of visualising the computing experience is made that goes along with it, then this could be the next big jump.
I’m sorry but how is this a challenge? Apple is shipping real product now within days. All Microsoft is shipping (as usual) is the promise of something, some time… hardly a challenge at this point.
Actually, MS, like Apple, announced an ACTUAL product a few months ahead of time. Apple announced the iPhone in January and will ship it in June. MS announced the MS Surface tabletop this week and will ship it at the end of 2007. What’s so difficult to understand about that?
Something like this as a sort of addition to the keyboard, a touchscreen sitting between the keyboard and the edge of the desk, would be an amazing addition to the way we interact with our computers.
I don’t like the idea of multi-touch on a desktop’s main screen though. Nor on a laptop. It’s, dare I say, unergonomical. For multitouch to work, the display has to be beneath you, as in the iPhone or MS Surface.
Obviously the ‘coffee table form factor’ is a little before its time, however…
are you really going to fork out an extra few hundred dollars just for irregular work?
This is the billion $ question. The stuff in the iPhone is cool and the interface is super-useful there. But will consumers either need or enjoy it enough to spend their round flat money coins on an add-on to the PC experience?
This monkey says some of them would. If Apple could do their ‘shipping as standard’ thing as for USB 2 we would all be hooked within months. Except the tech is still prohibitively expensive at this point. Some day.
Apple announced the iPhone in January and will ship it in June. MS announced the MS Surface tabletop this week and will ship it at the end of 2007. What’s so difficult to understand about that?
“June” is a hard deadline… “At the end of 2007” is more nebulous. Longhorn was supposed to ship at the end of any number of years beginning with 2-0-0…
When the iPhone was announced, there was a working (beta) product in the hand of the CEO. There were pricing details, technical specifications, product pictures, etc. With Surface, all that is reported thus far is a video of what is essentially only a technology demo—no technical details, pricing or other pertinent information.
I’m not saying Microsoft *won’t* have a shipping product this year, but there has been a history of vapor-ware announcements from Microsoft… So who wouldn’t be skeptical?
There is no news here. When Jeff Han demonstrated this kind of technology at the Ted Talks in the winter of ‘06 it was truly amazing. But he had a big screen, and he looked comfortable using it. All that MS has demonstrated is that they can go and buy someone else’s stuff, package it in an awkward looking box, and say that sometime in the future they might do something with this idea. Can MS really come up with something new? After years of watching Apple market the iPod, look at how well MS implemented the Zune. When Apple showed folks the iPhone, you saw the product that you’ll be able to buy later this month.
Here is what the technology looked like 1-1/2 years ago.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/65
Do we need MS to invent the marketing term, “surface?” That is about as useful to our language as their use of “squirt.”
I don’t see that anything about this is a challenge to Apple’s Multi-touch.
When the iPhone was announced, there was a working (beta) product in the hand of the CEO. There were pricing details, technical specifications, product pictures, etc.
Which would be totally unlike say, a video of a working model, tech specs (30” screen, table top design, etc), and pricing details of $5000-10000.
Jeebus, people.
But will consumers either need or enjoy it enough to spend their round flat money coins on an add-on to the PC experience?
When the iPhone was announced, Apple fanatics were falling over themselves begging that this technology be included in Leopard (which it supposedly is).
Now, as if suffering a collective head trauma, no one has ANY idea how this type of technology would be useful.
You want to know why I go out of my way not to be a Mac fanatic? It’s because I simply can’t abide sacrificing such a significant portion of my higher brain functioning the way you guys do. It’s also one the reasons I don’t drink.
Keyboards and mice have nothing to do with viruses. Multi-touch IS an external input device, just like a keyboard and mouse. I’m curious as to how your computer with a keyboard and mouse will zap those viruses better than multi-touch when your computer locks up.
Do you have a magic keyboard?
When the iPhone was announced, Apple fanatics were falling over themselves begging that this technology be included in Leopard (which it supposedly is).
Now, as if suffering a collective head trauma, no one has ANY idea how this type of technology would be useful.
What?
Oh i see.
What we haven’t really seen is how this device has been made into a copmlete product. We can see it can do a few cool things. It is generally the same as the multi-touch demo people were raving about (not from MS) earlier this year.
But just above in comment 6/7 I’ve preciesly given an “idea how this type of technology would be useful”.
I think its very promising. We’ll see what the final product is like, what the extent of its uses are, how it interfaces with other devices in the home. At the moment I have no idea about these things bar a demo of some photos moving around using generic multi-touch techniques. For one thing, the surface website is just a black page.
Certainly a $5-10,000 coffee table isn’t a product going to take the mass market by storm. As Beeb says, this is an additional computer, you won’t be using this for all your PC-based tasks.
I have no idea how the final product will fit in. Microsoft have a less than stellar track record in product-ising these interesting research projects.
We’ll see.
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PS It is so unhelpful to have to spend half of each and every post defending one’s character against a stereotype. Perhaps we should just abandon stereotypes on here. How about it Hadley? A strict rule that all posts referencing stereotypes be deleted?
Here’s the demo from March 2006. Less recent than I thought.
Basically all I’ve seen is something very similar to this: great concepts in UI, but not formed into a shippable product. How MS does that will be the interesting thing.
And the link… oops