Microsoft Surface - Touch Table done right?

Microsoft Surface - Touch Table Done Right?

May 30th, 2007 · 18 Comments · ESRI, Microsoft, Virtual Earth

I won’t deny that the ESRI/Northrop-Grumman Touch Table is about the most impressive thing I’ve seen in the last couple years. Its big issue is that it is so expensive. Well Microsoft is going to push their own touch table out called Microsoft Surface. Rather than being just a one trick pony, this table will allow you to interact with many more applications. I’ll be honest, I haven’t seen it in person, but the video I’ve seen just knocks my socks off. I can only assume the price point will be much more affordable for those who want to use this kind of collaborative tool. I’m now very disappointed I’m stuck in Tempe today.

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18 responses so far ↓

1 Infonaut - Infonaut Blog // May 30, 2007 at 11:52 am

[...] James Fee’s Spatially Adjusted blog: I won’t deny that the ESRI/Northrop-Grumman Touch Table is about the most impressive thing [...]
2 Doug // May 30, 2007 at 12:34 pm

James from /. the price is listed at $5,000 to $10,000 from which I deduce:

The user base will be nonexistant and there will be few applicaitons written for it that aren’t government contracts.

The touch table probably costs as much as the MS table when you consider dollars/square feet viewing area.

You have an interesting idea of “done right”
3 Hobu's Lover // May 30, 2007 at 12:47 pm

Doug, I think James was saying that it is more open that the Northrop table. That one is very specialized (at least what I’ve seen from it). This one appears to be a table that can be used for almost anything.
4 James Fee // May 30, 2007 at 12:58 pm

Doug: Did you watch the video? If you don’t see how different this is from the Northrop-Grumman table you are missing the point.
5 Kipter Uh // May 30, 2007 at 12:59 pm

I have to admit, I agree with James on this one. This is the product those of us have been wishing for.
6 Lefty // May 30, 2007 at 1:05 pm

Doug, you don’t think ESRI feels the pressure with this? I know you’ve got a table sitting in Redlands right now.
7 GeoZen // May 31, 2007 at 7:53 am

I believe that Apple will also create something similar on the tail of the iPhone. At that point, it will be another Apple vs. Microsoft. Both will probably be “just out of reach” of the average consumer.
8 Doug // May 31, 2007 at 9:37 am

$5,000 to $10,000 price. Ask yourself what software so benefits from this interface that it worth paying $5-10k.

I wouldn’t have a clue how much money ESRI makes on touch table slaes but the question needs to always come back to who is going to drop the money for a tactile interface like this.
9 GeoZen // May 31, 2007 at 9:46 am

Thats the issue entirely … who is going to buy this? If we are to believe their website, the average person. If this is going to be marketed to the average person for casual use for cameras, phones, Zunes (notice they never used an iPod), etc … then they need to mark it down to 1-1.5k. Your average consumer may pay up to 1500 for a higher end system, but 5k? Its another case for iPhone type marketing.
10 Doug // May 31, 2007 at 10:16 am

I can see buying an iPhone if you have some extra money because cell phone UI’s are a disaster and lets face it- we all use cell phones.

A tactile interface has to compete with keyboard and mouse and their lower cost. I like a Star Trek porduct as much as anyone but nobody shells out 5-10k for something that is selling itself solely on neat-o.
11 Chris C. // May 31, 2007 at 11:36 am

@ Doug

Do you remember the cost of plasma\lcd tvs when they first came out? Now you’re lucky to see a CRT in the stores.

The price will come down once they get into mass production.
12 Doug // May 31, 2007 at 12:45 pm

@Chris

So surface will be the home computer of choice in 15 years? I remember when 12 inch 640×480 LCDs were $1500, and remember that surface has to compete against a mouse and keyboard.

LCD’s became commonplace because there was no way to get a CRT into a portable. LCD TVs are only becoming commonplace because Samsung et al made massive capital investment into LCD plants knowing that the laptop market was there. As neat as a touch coffee table is it is a market where keyboard and mouse work fine without the high cost.

Please read Pogue for a sense of reality:
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/05/31/much-ado-about-microsofts-surface-computer/
13 Kevin // May 31, 2007 at 3:20 pm

“As neat as a touch coffee table is it is a market where keyboard and mouse work fine without the high cost.”

No keyboard and mouse works for my 80 year old Mother. But even she could use a consumer version of this thing.

30 years into personal computers, and they’re still require too much knowledge to use. It’s sad.
14 Jim P // May 31, 2007 at 7:26 pm

Oh, please. Keyboards/mice being the “cat’s meow”…you young ‘uns just make my day. I must admit, I never can tell what will or won’t make it in the marketplace.

From http://www.datamath.org — “The famous TI-2500 Datamath calculator was first announced in April 1972 with a suggested retail price (SRP) of $149.95. Beginning June 1972 first customers got in the Neiman-Marcus and Sanger-Harris department stores in Dallas, TX their calculators before the formally introduction on September 21, 1972. “

Add, Subtract, Multiply, and Divide –that was it. Not even% on these babies.

Who would spend $150 (gas was 50 cents; real steaks $1/lb) on what we could do in our head, or with a sharp #2 pencil and a Big Chief tablet (an early tablet computer? no, a writing pad of paper)? Being a teenager, I knew it all. Guess not!! Thankfully my Dad bought TI stock.

Surface may not fly out the stores now except for the novelty, just like the Datamaths (cell phones??? those were novel at one time).

Find a Surface near you and just enjoy it until you can buy one, or something with an offshoot technology, for your own, or not. Just don’t be looking over my shoulder while I’m enjoying one.

Kevin — great post! It truly is sad…
15 Mike Quentel // Jun 14, 2007 at 2:16 pm

TouchTable is now a product of TouchTable, Inc. See http://www.touchtable.com/site/

Northrop Grumman develops solutions that include TouchTable.

Typically, ArcGlobe is used with TouchTable.
16 Rob Legge // Nov 20, 2007 at 7:47 am

£2500 to £5000 when high end PCs can go for around £2000 isn’t too much for one of these babies. Take into consideration that an LCD TV of around the same size can set you back £800 alon - and that’s without the computer attached. One application I can see for this in the home is to link it as an extender for Vista MCE. Right now that drives my 42″ plasma screen, but how cool would it be to have the TV guide on the coffee table in front of you and select your viewing, or your music with a touch? Oh, one guy on another blog said he’d consider it when the price came down to $300. Made me laugh. If it had an Apple logo on it I reckon he’d be only to pleased to shell out ten times that. After all, he’s probably spent more on his i-Phone!
17 J Wallis // Nov 21, 2007 at 7:06 am

These are only $5-10k? Where can I get one? That is CHEAP!
18 MayB // Feb 14, 2008 at 4:40 pm

I think the touch tables are really neat, but seriously who is going to pay 5-10 grand? To some people that may be cheap, but to others it is an outrageous price. If they would bring the prices down to about the price of a nice Apple or Mac laptop they would sell a whole lot more and in the long run end up making more money. Some people just don’t realize that in 10-15 years those touchtables are going to be like computers the came with Windows98 are to us today. Scientists are just going to keep on coming up with crazy ideas that will eventually fade into the past.