14 DAY TRIAL // The adoption of Microsoft Surface products by the general public will be intimately connected with the availability of applications making use of the platform. Internal software solutions built by members of the Surface team, in addition to business applications put together for customers that have already adopted the tabletop computer, indicate a strong potential for Surface to go mainstream. SplatBox and Bubble Wrap are illustrative examples of Surface applications that can contribute to making it appealing to the general public.
“Kevin Kennedy will have been with the Microsoft Surface team five years in January. It's hard to get developers out of their offices, so I went to Kevin's office this time. We took a look at his application called SplatBox. It's a VJ application written in WPF. The design aspects are fairly raw, but it's full of possibilities,” Eric Havir, Sr. manager, Digital Communications at Microsoft/Surface, stated.
In addition to SplatBox, Microsoft has also built Bubble Wrap, an application designed to replicate the actual experience of playing with bubble wrap. “I'd kick back with Microsoft Surface and pop bubble wrap the Surface way. It's a strangely addictive app that Kevin and Peter thought up,” Havir explained. Furthermore, taking into consideration the fact that all the bubbles are programmed to regenerate themselves, the application can potentially keep users amused for hours on end. The two videos embedded at the ending of this article will offer demonstrations of both SplatBox and Bubble Wrap, in order to deliver an idea of what Microsoft Surface applications can offer.
Fact is that, even if Microsoft is still far away from delivering a version of its surface computing product for the masses, the natural user interface of the product in combination with applications tailored to the NUI recommend Surface to home users. In this context, the Redmond company has already mentioned project Oahu as a Surface offering for the masses, but the largest impediment in getting Surface mainstream is the cost. With price tags of $12,500 and $15,000 per unit, Surface will not be adopted by the general public anytime soon.
Video: Bubble wrap on Microsoft Surface