Wednesday, April 2nd 2008
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AT&T First to Introduce Microsoft Surface in Retail Stores
AT&T and Microsoft Corp. today announced a collaborative alliance that will transform the way consumers shop for mobile devices. AT&T will become the first company in the world to bring Microsoft Surface to life in a retail environment, giving customers the ability to explore their mobile worlds using touch and device recognition technology. Microsoft Surface is the first commercially available surface computer from Microsoft. Beginning April 17, customers can experience Microsoft Surface in select AT&T retail locations, including stores in New York City, Atlanta, San Antonio and San Francisco. Based on the success and learning from these initial pilot deployments, plans for further expansion across AT&T's 2,200 U.S. retail stores will be determined.Microsoft Surface is a 30-inch table-like display that gives individuals or multiple people the opportunity to interact with devices and content in a way that feels familiar - by using touch, gestures and placement of devices on the display. In essence, it's a surface come to life for exploring, learning, sharing, creating, buying and much more.
AT&T plans to harness the power of Surface to provide its retail store visitors with unique opportunities to learn about the growing universe of mobile applications and devices. The interactive touch displays, which will work without a traditional mouse or keyboard, will allow customers to do the following:
"We are thrilled to bring this groundbreaking new technology to our stores so we can introduce customers to their mobile worlds in a very personal and easy way," said Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO, AT&T Mobility. "We look forward to working with Microsoft to continue developing new ways for our customers to learn about the ever-growing lineup of mobile devices and applications."
"Microsoft Surface transforms the retail environment from a transaction destination to a customer engagement destination," said Robbie Bach, president, Entertainment & Devices Division, Microsoft. "With innovative and intuitive ways of accessing information and digital content on Microsoft Surface, consumers now have an entirely new, unique and personalized shopping experience. We're excited to have AT&T bring this to life and be the first company showcasing Surface in its retail locations."
AT&T plans to unveil the new displays in stores located in New York City, Atlanta, San Antonio and the San Francisco area on April 17, followed by additional stores in other markets based on the success of the first phase of deployments. Additional information on the launch is available online at www.att.com/surface.
Source:
Microsoft
AT&T plans to harness the power of Surface to provide its retail store visitors with unique opportunities to learn about the growing universe of mobile applications and devices. The interactive touch displays, which will work without a traditional mouse or keyboard, will allow customers to do the following:
- Learn. Customers can review features of a particular mobile device by simply placing it on the display. Surface will recognize the device and provide a graphical overview of its capabilities. Customers will be able to place two devices side by side on the unit and easily compare their features.
- Explore. Customers view interactive coverage maps at the national, state, local or street level, using simple touch and hand movement to scale and move the maps, determining their coverage area.
- Customize. In the future, customers will be able to drag and drop ring tones, graphics, video and more by "grabbing" content with their hands from a menu on the display and "dropping" it into the phone.
"We are thrilled to bring this groundbreaking new technology to our stores so we can introduce customers to their mobile worlds in a very personal and easy way," said Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO, AT&T Mobility. "We look forward to working with Microsoft to continue developing new ways for our customers to learn about the ever-growing lineup of mobile devices and applications."
"Microsoft Surface transforms the retail environment from a transaction destination to a customer engagement destination," said Robbie Bach, president, Entertainment & Devices Division, Microsoft. "With innovative and intuitive ways of accessing information and digital content on Microsoft Surface, consumers now have an entirely new, unique and personalized shopping experience. We're excited to have AT&T bring this to life and be the first company showcasing Surface in its retail locations."
AT&T plans to unveil the new displays in stores located in New York City, Atlanta, San Antonio and the San Francisco area on April 17, followed by additional stores in other markets based on the success of the first phase of deployments. Additional information on the launch is available online at www.att.com/surface.
19 Comments on AT&T First to Introduce Microsoft Surface in Retail Stores
Soon office furniture (e.g. everyones desk) could become "live". Great comms system. Be onthe phone and have documents right there on the e-desk. Superb for reading PDFs etc. Just where do we put the keyboard+mouse now? LOL
Multi-touch technology dates back to 1982 when the University of Toronto developed the first finger pressure multi-touch display. The same year Bell Labs and Murray Hill published what is believed to be the first paper discussing touch-screen based interfaces. In 1984 Bell Labs engineered a touch screen that could manipulate images. The same year Microsoft began research in the area. A significant breakthrough occurred in 1991 when Pierre Wells published a paper on his multi-touch “Digital Desk”, which supported multi-finger and pinching motions (these would later be critical to the development of modern products such as the iPhone).
Good enough for you? Its widely documented across the web.
i looked into this for my final year assignment in my degree, yes multi-touch dates back to the early 80's but then it was regarded as multiple touch, they managed to make screens support multiple, simultaneous inputs. What we see today is gestural communication, which you said was picked up and commented on in the early 90's but has been implemented now. check out the work of jefferson han, you will see where MS got their idea from.
and dont ever quote wikipedia again!
edit: check this out cs.nyu.edu/~jhan/
and secondly, READ what i wrote. i didnt say apple had it first, i said they took it from others that had worked on similar implementations. i havent stated that anybody had it first
ill take a fedora silverlight desk over a stock one anyday for the week lol.