Microsoft's Surface Computing Will Not Hit Fingertips until 2008

Although when it unveiled its first product to leverage surface computing technology in May 2007, Microsoft revealed that Surface would find its way to business customers by November, the company has now changed its tune. Microsoft Surface will not be made available by the end of 2007, but in early 2008. While Microsoft Surface onto itself is fully functional, the company has found that it is struggling with the inclusion of customized content tailored for clients such as the Sheraton, Harrah, and T-Mobile. The new deadline for when the general public will be able to get a hands-on experience with the Microsoft tabletop computer is set for spring 2008.

"The first Surface units will be in the wild a little later than we originally planned. It's a slight shift in timing for us, but we think that some of the stuff we've been working on is worth a little more wait. This is an entirely new category of technology afterall, so we're working closely with our partners to develop customized content that suits their business and they are going to deploy when the time is right for them. We expect that to begin in the spring...of course each partner is different and will be on different timelines for broad deployments", commented Kyle Warnick, a senior marketing communications manager for Surface computing.

Mark Bolger, Senior Director in Microsoft's surface computing unit, explained that Surface is by no means designed to tailor fit every environment it is deployed in. And just because it lacks the one-size-fits-all characteristic, the tabletop computer's availability was postponed to next year. Still, the Redmond company has informed that there is a lot of anticipation building around the product which for now, in its first stage of evolution is addressed exclusively at corporate clients. Since May, Microsoft received inquiries from in excess of 2,000 potential businesses. The company is also working on Surface in order to make it available in the household. For now, the tabletop computer is priced between $5,000 and $10,000.

"We really do have a lot of things we'd love to be able to show off as soon as possible, things our developers are working hard on, but we also don't want to overload you guys with too much cool either - and hey, we like it when you pay attention to us for long periods of time, so we'll spread it out a bit. It does go beyond Pumpkin Carving though: our wicked smart boys and girls in the lab have been working on a wide variety of applications, code and UX that not only push Surface computing to the limit, but will redefine what you can do with a computer", Warnick added.