“Microsoft has officially launched its Surface line of touch computer units in Australia with a focus on retail, education and finance markets,” Nadia Cameron reports for Computerworld.
Cameron reports, “At an event in Microsoft’s Sydney headquarters on Tuesday, Microsoft’s entertainment and devices division president, Robbie Bach, said the main targets would be businesses and not consumers.”
“Key verticals being targeted include education, public sector, retail, finance and other public-facing service providers,” Cameron reports. “All Surface hardware sales will go direct through the vendor and cost users $21,000 each [US$18,283.65], while software development kit (SDK) models will cost $24,500 [US$21,330.93].”
Cameron reports, “Microsoft managing director, Tracey Fellows, forecast hundreds rather than thousands of unit sales in the first 12 months.”
“The Surface device is identical in all 19 geographic markets. Its operating system is based on Windows Vista SP1 and five cameras sit beneath a ruggedised 30-inch multi-touchscreen with object recognition built-in,” Cameron reports. “It’s driven by a 2.13GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU and 2GB of DDR2 RAM with a maximum resolution of 1024 x 768. The unit weighs 90kg [198.4 lbs.] and measures 108 x 69 x 54cm [42.5 x 27.2 x 22.3 inches].”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Wonderful news! Now Aussies can ignore Microsoft’s Big Ass Table, too!
Wanna hear something funny? Windows Vista SP1.
Let’s see: $18,284 for Microsoft’s 42.5″ x 27.2″ x 22.3″ and 198.4 pound non-portable Big Ass Table or $499 for an Apple iPad that’s just 9.56″ x 7.47″ x 0.5″ thin, weighs just 1.5 pounds and does 150,000+ more things? Oh, however would one be able to decide?
Only a dysfunctional, oblivious, foolish, suicidal mess of a company would make such a move after Apple unveiled the iPad, much less announce it to the press.
Microsoft, keep focusing on inessential boondoggles, and may Steve Ballmer remain CEO for as long as it takes!
Direct link via YouTube here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “James W.” for the heads up.]
@enzos –
Why all the scorn?
Why not?
@tillot:
“But it doesn’t have a keyboard, which makes it not a very good business machine.” – Steve Ballmer
1. Chunky
2. Pricey
3. Crap specs for the price
4. If I am business owner / organisation, I probably would spend the money for lots more ipads for staff / users / customers and write special app for it
so wait…
does that make the os the right way up when it’s in oz then?
maybe the ozzies are being fooled and think this is the iPad!
noooo…..
Can you make a phone call on the bingass table? Does it run Flash?
This is a brilliant move by MS. The Australians will love it, after all they are beyond stupid, so it’s a perfect market for MS.
You really have to give credit where credit is due and this is sort of action is the thing that really is keeping the terrorist alliance of AENUS (Australia, England ‘N United States) together.
This will be the greatest gift the Australians receive from the States since American men came over and were able to do what obviously Australian men could not do… show Australian women a good time.
Of course that lead to the battle of Brisbane, so I wonder what the big ass table will lead to.
Who knows, maybe the military will use it to invade Tasmania.
Not the Big Ass Table! Come on, Oz! I know your poop swirls the other way in the toilet but you’ve got to be at least as smart as WE are in the Northern Hemisphere!
M$ is played; they’re done; finito. They couldn’t innovate their way out of a wet paper bag (American expression). But they’ll gladly charge you up the yin-yang for the crap they DO produce, IF you’re fool enough to pay it. DON’T DO IT!
If they sell ten of these things, it’s too many. Take that same money and send it to Haiti or something. Do some good with it.
Peace.
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Olmecmystic
P.S. “Key verticals?!?” WTF talks like that?
Just sayin’.
Peace.
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Olmecmystic
But I bet you can run Pandora
while surfing the Web on the Big Ass Table!
(just beating R2 to the punch)
Big Ass Table.
Now that’s innovation.
We have one right down the hall. It is currently broken.
Its the same resolution as the iPad. HAHA
I hear Australian resellers are having to halt orders due to “crazy interest”… oh, wait… that’s Norway and that’s the iPad. :p
Sounds great. I’ll buy one or two – for the livingroom and kitchen.
Someone’s going to mock the Big Ass Table by putting four legs on the bottom of an iPad (temporarily of course), and displaying it as a Small Ass Table.
Ohmigod! Hasn’t anyone else noticed that the weight in pounds multiplied by 10 is the Age of Ass-imilation!
kc_cramer
This is really sad. And embarassing for the boys in Redmond.
It would be nice to be able to listen to Pandora and do anything else at the same time on my iPhone.
At least I don’t have to truck the Big Ass Table around with me.
Time to get a mac mini under$1000 and a big ass screen under $ 1500 a table under $500, couple of USB cameras and boot leg an ipad software. iTable I thought of that!
Let’s be fair: the Microsoft Surface technology is pretty impressive to look at. I saw a D&D;game some grad students somewhere have been developing on it, and it’s pretty amazing.
That being said…
It’s nowhere near practical. I mean, not even in the same universe as practical. Seriously, Surface is the kind of thing you trot out as concept technology at a convention before trying to develop the ideas behind it into something practical. That Microsoft is actually trying to sell the thing speaks volumes as to their desperation.
——RM
Microsoft is obviously missing out on a great opportunity to penetrate the education market. Their marketing slogan should really be, “A Big Ass Table in Every Backpack!”
I’m getting Surface in every room in my house.
http://www.bing.com When it comes to decisions that matter, Bing & Decide
@ I’m a PC
Does that mean you’re gonna crap on one too?
Australian women are HOT. That accent gets me ever time.
They have these at Disneyland. They are bland, and horribly unresponsive. Most people move on very quickly.
@lord robin
D&D;? That’s sad. A bunch of nerds hogging for hours the one BAT within 1000 miles, in a hotel bar. They could have been playing on their ipads peer to peer without getting out of their basements. Still, if it’s a party they want, somone will write an ipad game app where you can put 12 ipads together and have a really huge playing field.