When In Doubt - Start Over
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In the past, I have talked about my thoughts on Microsoft Surface technology, acknowledging how well it would fit into kiosk type duties with companies such as AT&T. But when I heard about a possible Surface “Sphere“, I about lost it. Now obviously most people have pointed out that technology such as this is not really practical in the home or office. We are brought up these days to use a keyboard and a mouse in our computing lives. Yet at the same time, there was a time not all that long ago when the idea of a mouse was just plain silly. I see a home based Surface Sphere facing the same challenge and opportunity.
Contrary to what others have said in the past, I do not believe that the concept of the Surface computing platform is to outwardly replace Windows, compete with OS X or even overthrow Linux as the star-filled newcomer. No, I see this as something of a 10-15 year venture. I am talking about creating the next “mouse” so to speak. This is where I believe Microsoft is headed which in reality, leaves other computing platforms as a moot point. There is no competition because it is not likely the focus for MS…yet.
What do you think? After fully realizing that Microsoft knows full well that in this day in age users are not really ready to lose the keyboard/mouse combination all at once, do you suspect that Microsoft will be using future Windows releases to slowly warm us up to using new and exciting ways of interacting with our PCs using touch?
2 Comments
Frank Schnyder
April 22nd, 2008
at 11:26am
This occupied 3 seconds in a Microsoft Research and Development promotional video. I hardly think that means that there’s a viable product here. It’s only in the video because it looks cool. Even Microsoft wouldn’t put something out if they couldn’t fool at least half the people that it was useful in some way.
I think the signal to noise ratio here is too low. Much ado about nothing.
An interactive GLOBE would be cool, though.
Frank Schnyder
April 22nd, 2008
at 11:31am
As far as surface computing goes, though. Although currently a physical keyboard is very fast, I think later generations could get used to using a keyboard display a la iPhone (I couldn’t). Then you would only need a screen, eliminating the need for a physical keyboard and mouse, which opens up whole new possibilities.