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Technology is funny and fickle. Certain products that come out that look really awesome and do cool things sometimes aren’t the most useful products, and therefore don’t take off. I’ve been wondering recently if the Microsoft Surface might be one of those products. As we’ve seen with the iPhone and Blackberry storm that touch screen are huge. But most all touch screens these days are on mobile devices, and not on laptops, monitors and other non-mobile platforms. The bottom line is that touch really works for devices that you can put in your pocket.

Microsoft hasn’t done as well in the mobile space, and has therefore made their big touch power play in the desktop space with their Microsoft Surface device. This thing is really cool looking in terms of what it can do and how it looks. The interface is overwhelmingly intuitive – simply place a device (phone, camera, etc…) on the screen and it can pull files and data out of the device without using a wire. I was a little concerned about the whole issue of the device only being able to interface with Windows Mobile devices as being yet another example of Microsoft’s ‘closed’ attitude around the devices that they create and not creating harmony with other companies and the devices they create…This is why people hate your company guys!

In any case, have a look at the dive for yourself in the video below. Right now, Microsoft is only selling these to companies (you’ve likely seen them on CNN and ESPN TV), and the only time you may have gotten to use one is in a hotel common area or perhaps in a high end restaurant. They cost $12,500 for the device alone (without the SDK and SP1 – $15,000 for everything not including installation). We’ll see how Microsoft makes the Surface play to the everyday consumer and it will be even more interesting to see if they can make it work. My apologies for the Microsoft centric demo video, but it gives you a good idea as to what this thing can do: