Keeping in touch: Microsoft's tough new offering

WITH A product that initially began life on the back of a napkin as a consumer touchscreen device for playing chess and draughts, Microsoft is getting ready to launch Surface 2.0 into 23 markets globally later this year as an enterprise-oriented technology.

Surface 2.0 is a horizontal multiuser device with a 20in (51cm) touchscreen that can process up to 50 individual interactions at a given moment. It recognises both human touch and real-world objects placed on the surface.

Demonstrating Surface 2.0 technology at Microsoft’s Redmond campus in Canada this week, Somanna Palacanda, director of marketing, explained that the partnership with Samsung for display technology had produced the world’s biggest piece of virtually unbreakable Gorilla Glass.

“This is touchscreen technology designed to take spills and knocks, making it ideal for bars and restaurants. If you dropped a bottle of beer on to it from a height it wouldn’t do any damage,” he explained.

This second generation of Surface emerges three years after the launch.

The device is down from 21in to 4in thick, as the infrared sensor technology, not unlike that used in the Xbox Kinect, fits into a smaller space.

Microsoft isn’t giving any figures on the units of Surface 1.0 sold but said that feedback showed that, at 49.4kg (190lb), it was too heavy, too big and too expensive.

Surface 2.0 is expected to retail at about $7,900 (€5,447).

Mr Palacanda indicated that the goal of Surface 1.0 was not to shift units but rather “to launch product and get developers excited”.

Wednesday’s demonstrations showed applications ranging from one that recognises brushstrokes from a real paintbrush and uses a physics engine to move the resulting paintings according to the laws of gravity, to an interactive piggy bank to help banking customers visualise savings.

Microsoft is aiming Surface 2.0 at eight sectors: retail, hospitality, automotive, healthcare, financial services, professional services, education and the public sector.

“The reason we think this product is ready to accelerate adoption in the enterprise is because touch has now become ubiquitous,” said Mr Palacanda.