Since Conchango signed up to be design and development partners for Microsoft Surface in the UK, US and EMEA, we’ve been waiting for one thing to fall into place; the news that Microsoft can officially ship Surface devices outside of the US.
On Friday, I had news from the Microsoft Surface team that they are ready to begin shipping to Europe starting in January 2009.
Most territories have some form of certification for electronic devices. In Europe this is the CE mark. Until the standards of safety and compliance for this mark are met, manufacturers are not allowed to sell or ship devices.
Now that Microsoft Surface devices have been certified with this mark, Microsoft can now officially ship to Europe, thereby opening the doors for a whole new market and series of opportunities.
The price point is currently set at £8,500 for a consumer unit, and at £10,000 for developer units. Both types of units are now finished in the shiny black cladding.
There are volume breaks available from 50 units.
Now that this is official, Conchango took one of their Surface devices out in public at the Forrester Consumer Marketing and Finance Forum in London late last week.
Conchango have been rated as leaders in digital design by Forrester for two years in a row, and have been on the leading edge of development in a number of UI technologies, including Microsoft WPF and Silverlight for several years.
It made sense therefore that we would want to be on the Microsoft Surface programme early, which is why we signed up early this year and are one of the ‘original 60’ global partners.
The attendees at the Forrester Forum last week were a variety of business leaders from a variety of well known and global consumer and finance brands.
The reaction to seeing Surface was one of sheer astonishment from most. Many had seen it in videos online, but to see and interact with it first hand was to take their experience to another level.
Conchango’s primary focus for Surface is in Retail, Banking and Hospitality, with the latter for us meaning airline lounges. The interesting thing for me was that most of the attendees immediately saw the application for Surface in Retail and Hospitality, but fewer saw it in Finance and Banking. This did astonish me because this is one of the areas in which we see most potential.
When you put Natural User Interaction and collaborative computing together, there is a huge opportunity to make the planning complex and intricate financial models and scenarios a simple and more understandable affair. This is perfect in the fields of independent financial advice for your own personal finances, or in wealth management advice scenarios… or to take an example, has anyone ever had an offset mortgage explained to them successfully without the use of a visual aid, be it a sketch from their IFA, or an online calculator? I guess it’s hard to imagine these things if you can’t see them, and aren’t that familiar with the totally different interface paradigm of Surface.
Anyway – more on getting Surface at www.surface.com – and we’re actively working on opportunities in Finance, Retail and Hospitality, in the UK, US and EMEA so hopefully you’ll see more vertically relevant examples very soon.
As a footnote – if you want to see Surface in action in London, or elsewhere in the UK, talk to us.