Microsoft Surface Goes Down Under

Microsoft has expanded the availability of its first example of surface computing product to customers in Australia. The Redmond company indicated that widespread interest in the tabletop computer from companies and organizations down under had been a catalyst for commercial availability of Microsoft Surface on the third continent since the product was introduced. Ahead of the Australian GA announced on February 9th, 2010, Microsoft Surface could only be acquired by customers in the United States and in Europe.  However, just as is the case in the rest of the world, Microsoft Surface is only offered to business customers in Australia, such as Curtin University and ANZ bank.

“We’ve experienced great momentum to date with Microsoft Surface in the U.S. and in EMEA. We're excited to now expand into Australia, our first Asia-Pacific market, and provide new, collaborative and more meaningful ways for organisations to engage with and delight their customers, students or constituents. It’s great to be working with local partners who have already developed for and explored the possibilities of Surface and we are committed to their success,” explained Robbie Bach, president, Entertainment & Devices Division, Microsoft.

Microsoft Surface was the company’s first product to feature an advanced natural user interface model. Surface comes with support for multitouch, gesture recognition and object recognition, allowing users to take advantage of a new paradigm of interaction. The 76cm (30-inch) display, 360-degree, horizontal user interface is powered by a computer running Windows Vista, according to the company.

“Since the unveiling of Microsoft Surface, we’ve received strong interest from Australian organisations who are looking to embrace the next evolution in computing to engage with their stakeholders, and from developers who want to create applications that were not possible with other technologies,” stated Tracey Fellows, managing director, Microsoft Australia.