« Previous post
Next post »

April 1, 2008

Microsoft Surface Coming To AT&T Stores

Duncan Riley

38 comments »

surface1.pngMicrosoft’s Surface computer will make its commercial debut April 17 in AT&T stores in New York City, Atlanta, San Antonio and San Francisco.

Microsoft first unveiled the Surface back in May 2007; the coffee-table like computer allows touch screen interaction with various surfaces, can recognize objects places on it and even interact with things like mobile phones.

AT&T said it planned to use the Surface to allow customers “to learn about the growing universe of mobile applications and devices.”

I had the opportunity to have a quick play with a Surface earlier this year and it’s one of the cooler things to come out of Redmond in the last 12 months, but I can’t help but wonder: isn’t putting a Surface in an AT&T store like driving an Aston Martin into a Ghetto? To be fair, interacting with a Surface at an AT&T store will be better than trying to interact with AT&T staff; not only will it be quicker (even if you queue for an hour to use it), it will actually be more polite and be able to explain the product its offering competently.

A demo video from May as follows:

  • Sphere It

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 at 10:18 pm and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Trackbacks/Pings (Trackback URL)

  1. Coolest idea of the week: Microsoft Surface « TLC Studio

    April 2nd, 2008 at 11:17 am

  2. Microsoft Surface finalmente chega às lojas

    April 4th, 2008 at 4:22 am

  3. » Microsoft Surface Online Travel Focus: (BETA) Africa’s Online Travel Trade Community

    April 22nd, 2008 at 12:24 pm

  4. //steve clayton: geek in disguise : Gates demos Touch Wall at CEO Summit

    May 14th, 2008 at 9:16 am

  5. Touchwall: Microsoft’s Inexpensive Wall-Based Multi-Touch Interface

    May 14th, 2008 at 11:15 am

  6. CrunchGear » Archive » Microsoft TouchWall can inexpensively turn any flat surface into a multi-touch display

    May 14th, 2008 at 12:16 pm

  7. information architecture and experience design - atlanta, GA » Blog Archive » Touchwall: Multi-Touch Interface

    May 14th, 2008 at 12:47 pm

  8. Bink.nu | Touchwall: Microsoft’s Inexpensive Wall-Based Multi-Touch Interface - Bink.nu

    May 14th, 2008 at 7:51 pm

  9. Microsoft Surface Coming To AT&T Stores « Pineapple Pinnacles

    May 19th, 2008 at 11:45 pm

Comments

RSS feed for comments on this post.

  1. Aaron

    April 1st, 2008 at 10:30 pm

    I can’t wait to purchase and configure my iPhone on (a?) Surface.

  2. Loren

    April 1st, 2008 at 10:32 pm

    A second April Fools? haha

  3. Jesus Franco

    April 1st, 2008 at 10:35 pm

    This website has awesome posts…
    But back to the subject, I think Microsoft Surface is amazing, and sounds very affordable for the level of productivity.

  4. Patrick

    April 1st, 2008 at 10:35 pm

    Duncan,
    How would you know the experience of an AT&T store sitting in Australia? Maybe you like them sheila’s better down under at your telstra dumps? When Telstra does something useful or when Australia even makes one useful product you can pick on a company that gave you the telephone and is a 100+ years old and still going strong. Want to bet that AT&T outlives your $hitty life?

  5. Duncan Riley

    April 1st, 2008 at 10:38 pm

    Loren #2 no.

    Patrick, unfortunately there’s no T-Mobile coverage at TC HQ so I use a AT&T sim every time I’m there. AT&T stores and phone support make Telstra look good.

  6. D

    April 1st, 2008 at 10:52 pm

    I tend to bash Microsoft quite a bit. But “surface” is absolutely amazing.

    I love the ablilty to send photos from digital camera to pda/cell phone in an instant.

    Imagine this in 5 years time when there are other players and the cost drops right down :)

    Amazing.

  7. tagami

    April 1st, 2008 at 10:56 pm

    Not clear by your story but will we be able to buy Surface or will it just be used as an in-store display?

  8. ajay

    April 1st, 2008 at 11:03 pm

    microsoft surface absolutely amazing and i think one of the gr8 things that microsoft has ever developed .
    watting for when surface will come to india

  9. Mcneri

    April 1st, 2008 at 11:05 pm

    How many components will this new gizmo have? Infra red cameras and all? Sounds heavy….or rather looks like the gizmo is beefed up with April fool hype!

  10. Duncan Riley

    April 1st, 2008 at 11:09 pm

    tagami
    sorry, by “commercial rollout” I meant as an instore sales tool, not ready to buy yet

  11. brendan

    April 1st, 2008 at 11:15 pm

    like driving an aston martin to the ghetto? Um….

  12. skidoo

    April 1st, 2008 at 11:35 pm

    fyi anyone can buy it, it cost around $10,000.

  13. Boring Market

    April 1st, 2008 at 11:38 pm

    This reminded me of how Apple Inc. brings Multi-touch to the main stream with the iPhone and slowly with their laptops. Microsoft totally takes the cakes with this product and with a lot of products, only the early adopters will really enjoy this product for now until it can ‘dumbed’ down for the masses. I think upscale businesses would benefit from this (business outside of major corporations) and this technology is so radical that it needs some more time to make it more commercial.

    I remember seeing this technology back in 2005. Back then it was mind blowing and raw, glad to see it has evolved.

  14. chush.net

    April 1st, 2008 at 11:52 pm

    Not an April fools joke - reported on microsoft.com 3 days ago.

  15. RK

    April 2nd, 2008 at 12:01 am

    I was very impressed when I saw the demo video an year ago. Cannot wait to get my hands on it but I guess will have to wait longer

    rk
    http://theindiastockmarket.blogspot.com/

  16. Henry Khachatryan

    April 2nd, 2008 at 12:43 am

    I want it, and I want it now =). But seriously this looks amazing, and it blows my mind everytime I see it.

    http://www.collegemogul.com

  17. Madhavi

    April 2nd, 2008 at 2:18 am

    Amazing surface… i got flat
    congrats …

  18. micfo.com

    April 2nd, 2008 at 2:37 am

    As far as the cost is concern, I think it would remain untouched by common people. The corporate customers might be only on the focus group.

  19. Munashe Gumbozvanda

    April 2nd, 2008 at 4:07 am

    that is simply too cool, i am in love with this idea, wow,
    you guys can diss by the way

  20. Dempsey

    April 2nd, 2008 at 6:00 am

    Sorry for the off-topic but, anybody who claims today’s AT&T has anything in common with the original company begs not only the question “whatcha smoking?” but also, “whatcha sniffing, putting on your tongue, brewing in your tea, mainlining, and what’s in that balloon?”

    “that gave you the telephone and is a 100+ years old and still going strong”

    I guess SBC wins the Switcharoo Branding award for the century.

  21. Frank Church

    April 2nd, 2008 at 6:41 am

    Funny enough, there is some research that shows people trust the telcos. I don’t know why or how, but that is what I’ve read and it blew my mind.

    Does anyone like or trust Verizon or AT&T?

    I hate them, and would only trust them with as much as absolutely required to use their highly-taxed pipe.

  22. 符碼印象

    April 2nd, 2008 at 7:25 am

    Microsoft Surface is really cool.
    Can’t wait to see it in Taiwan.

    快來台灣吧!

  23. Mia

    April 2nd, 2008 at 9:56 am

    Despite my personal (unflattering) opinion of AT&T, it’s a great coup for the company - first iPhone, now the Surface, they’re doing a good job aligning with cool products. Probably some re-branding is in the works?!

  24. marten

    April 2nd, 2008 at 10:22 am

    agree, this is some of the greatest things coming out of Redmond recently.

    Soon you’ll be able to control a regular PC/Mac using gestures on a touch pad. We’re (Sima Systems) developing a touch pad similar to a mouse pad in size, shape and feel. Our patented multi-touch technology integrated with a pad will allow you to use gestures to control OS and applications. You can also type directly on the pad to provide text input (keyboard functionality with tactile feedback) and write with your finger, or any regular pen.

    For more info, contact us at: info [at] simasystems [dot] com

  25. Video_Consultant

    April 2nd, 2008 at 11:09 am

    I look forward to the bugs.

  26. Suckface

    April 2nd, 2008 at 12:51 pm

    M$ is soooooooo boooooring they have nothing to impress us besides, hmm, never mind, nothing.

  27. raj

    April 2nd, 2008 at 5:25 pm

    this is very exciting and looking forward to it. It reminds me of a cool touch system I saw being used by BMW and at a movie theater in Ann Arbor. Apparently it said it was powered by innotive.com. Very cool stuff. I guess minority report the movie is finally a reality.

  28. Pascal Roy

    April 2nd, 2008 at 6:40 pm

    Well I’ll just have to drop by an AT&T store to see the Surface.. not for the phones!

  29. Marco Almondine

    April 2nd, 2008 at 9:04 pm

    The “San Francisco” AT&T store is actually going to be one in San Bruno.

    Whoever planned that out is a complete idiot. Yeah, a few Silicon Valley nerds will drive to see Surface in person, but if the goal is to gather and impress a bunch of foot traffic the way the Apple store in SF does, they should have picked a location around Union Square or maybe the Marina.

    http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=2604

« Previous post
Next post »