January 4th, 2008
CES: New applications to surface for Microsoft Surface
Sunday night is Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates’ big hurrah: His last Consumer Electronics Show (CES) keynote as Chief Software Architect.
Gates is expected to talk about future scenarios for the Microsoft Surface platform as part of his keynote address (according to an e-mail message I got from the Surface team):
“Since you last saw Surface, a lot has changed – there are new applications and a great deal of momentum. The Microsoft Surface team will be at this year’s CES and we’d appreciate the opportunity to schedule some time for you to get some in-person, hands-on time with Surface and the new applications. Bill Gates will be featuring Surface in the keynote, and there will a couple exciting new applications for you to play with.”
Surface, in case you need a reminder, is the Microsoft Vista-based platform that was formerly codenamed “PlayTable.” The first commercial implementations of Surface systems are expected to be deployed by hotels, casinos and cell-phone retailers in Spring 2008.
So what kinds of Surface applications — beyond the photo-sharing, drink-ordering and music-purchasing ones that Microsoft has been showing for the past several months — will be on the CES docket?
I’ve been hearing that Microsoft has been dabing with some more business-focused Surface apps, such as whiteboarding, meeting and collaboration and data visualization. Given that CES is a consumer-focused show, I’m doubtful the team will spend a whole lot of time showcasing these apps in the coming week.
But I’ve also been hearing that Microsoft has been prototyping some healthcare and education Surface apps and scenarios. A few tipsters have mentioned search as another area where Microsoft is optimizing the Surface. No doubt there will be some new Surface form factors beyond the big, pricey tabletops, at least in prototype form, at CES.
The Microsoft Surface team has been blogging about what it takes to make a Surface app sing. They also hinted about what kinds of things Gates will be showing at CES. From K Robert Warnick on the Surface team’s blog:
“We are excited to share more potential applications for Surface, a few new scenarios where you might encounter Surface and even a potential integration opportunity with one of the other Microsoft teams. … That’s all I’m saying now…you’ll just have to wait until CES to learn more. We’ll have three Surface units in the Microsoft booth and I’ll be giving daily demos in the presentation theater.”
What kinds of apps would make a Surface computing environment more interesting to you?
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