Free Windows Aero vs. the $10,000 Surface Graphical User Interface on Steroids

Windows Aero has a new competitor on the market, and if we are to believe Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates' vision of the future of computing interaction, the graphical user interface in Windows Vista is already obsolete. At the end of May 2007, Microsoft unveiled Surface, the company's first step into the world of surface computing. Now the users are separated from the digital content by nothing more than natural hand gestures, touch and physical objects. Surface computing is indeed a revolution in interaction with technology, taking down the traditional barriers and limitations associated with the mouse and keyboard, or with the standard touchscreen.

Nick White, Windows Vista Product Manager, recently revisited the subject of Microsoft Surface and has some interesting promises for users. "Microsoft Surface is a 30-inch display in a table-like form factor designed to bring friends and family together through the sharing of technology. Users can share photos, play games and complete everyday tasks by using hand gestures, touch or other physical objects with Microsoft Surface. This new custom software platform runs atop Windows Vista and is a good way to highlight the flexibility of the new OS in conjunction with new hardware and applications designed specifically for Windows Vista. Although it's maybe hard to imagine all that Surface will be able to do in the future, I have to say that today, even in its infancy, it's astonishing", White stated.

It is safe to assume that Microsoft Surface, the brainchild of Stevie Bathiche from the Microsoft Hardware Group and Andy Wilson from MS Research, is but the first instance of its evolution. Sure, it's nothing more than a big a*s table at the moment, but the future looks more than promising. Just think that the first prototype of Microsoft Surface was built in 2003, and by the end of this year, fully functional examples of the product will be served to customers. The list is rather exclusive at this point, as Surface will set you back a cool $5,000 to $10,000, but technology has a way of getting cheaper overnight. Just look at the iPhone.

White sat down with Nigel Keam, Architect, and Mark Bolger, Director of Marketing for Microsoft Surface, and delivered an interesting insight into the company's plans for the product. In three to five years, Microsoft Surface will be offered for home users. "The cost of Surface is currently high, but certainly not prohibitive. Depending on the applications involved, Microsoft Surface currently costs $5000-$10,000. The Surface team expects costs to decrease similar to the way LCD and plasma television prices have decreased, making the technology available to all of us before long. Even more surprisingly, we might see Surface available for our homes in only three to five years, according to the team", White stated.

Currently, Surface is running on top of a Core2Duo processor with only 2GB of RAM and with a copy of Windows Vista executing image processing straight from the GPU. But Surface won't continue to be a table. Microsoft is working on both vertical and diagonal screen interfaces, in addition to the horizontal one, already delivered. Well, guess we'll know in the next three to five years where exactly Microsoft will be going with Surface. Either way, the future belongs to natural graphical user interfaces.