Surface's Electrifying Debut!

 

October 26 was our big launch date for Windows 8 and Surface computers. The commercials have been great fun with cool music, great choreography and interesting visuals which you can check out here. Maybe what’s even more interesting is the engineering that went into making Surface which is captured in this video. Of course, there are always the competitive videos and one that might be of interest is here.

Last week we had our annual Global Utilities Summit and I was amazed as how many partners and customers showed up with their Surfaces in hand.  Many others where rushing out to buy theirs after seeing many of their peers sporting black, blue and pink varieties. For me, I love the attention my dazzling pink Surface attracts. Of course, it doesn’t hurt when Oprah calls Surface RT one of her favorite things for 2012.  She says it feels like a Mercedes-Benz and is a Wowser.

So what  good is a slick device without applications?  Well, with full Web browsing, Microsoft Office and an increasing abundance of applications in the app store including Lync, OneNote, Skype, Hulu and Netflix users are immediately sold on Surface. During our Utility Summit we demoed several Windows 8 applications for Surface including an application from the Utility EDP of Portugal.  EDP’s application allows customers to manage their contracts, analyze energy consumption, provide self-service features such as manual meter readings, invoices control and provides quick and simple information regarding outages. The application is available here (Portuguese only).

For Utilities and other corporations the wait is for Surface Pro which has all the security, manageability and power that you would expect from a high performance corporate productivity machine. As the CTO from one Utility told me at the Summit, I would buy a thousand Surface Pro’s today if they were available. The wait is almost over. – Jon C. Arnold