Cross-industry

Next version of Surface available

21 November 2011

The next version of Microsoft Surface is now available for pre-order on the Samsung Electronics website through Samsung resellers in 23 countries including the US, UK, France, Germany and India.

The Samsung SUR40, which was originally unveiled at the 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, is lighter and thinner than the original.

The new Surface takes technology that’s always existed in the backs of stores and brings it front and centre

Somanna Palacanda, Microsoft Surface “With the Samsung SUR40 available for pre-order in 23 countries worldwide, Surface computing will now be more readily available for education, financial and professional services, healthcare, hospitality, retail, manufacturing and resources, and other commercial business environments to help deliver interactive digital content, drive sales, showcase brands, and increase customer satisfaction and loyalty,” said Somanna Palacanda, director of Microsoft Surface.

One of the major new features of the new Surface is the PixelSense technology, which gives an LCD display the power to recognise fingers, hands and objects placed on the screen.

The technology has also enabled a new form factor – one that can be turned on its side. Customers can use the Samsung SUR40 horizontally as a table, hang it on a wall, or embed it into furniture.

“We listened to our partners and customers’ requests for a lighter and thinner form factor that gives them flexibility because there’s no one-size-fits-all in the retail space,” said Palacanda.

The product is four inches thin, has a 40-inch screen and uses the embedded AMD Athlon II X2 Dual-Core Processor 2.9GHz with the AMD Radeon HD 6700M Series GPU.

Dassault Aviation, Fujifilm Corp. and the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) all plan to use the Samsung SUR40 in locations around the globe early next year.

The RBC is redesigning its stores to offer customers a new retail experience where Surface is playing an important part.

Shipments are expected to start early in 2012.

“We've always spoken about collaboration from a computing standpoint, but before Microsoft Surface we truly did not have a device where two or more people could actually engage together with the same piece of digital content,” said Palacanda. “I think this announcement is the first step in delivering a next generation device that improves even further on the original Surface experience, which enables two or more people to collaborate in a very meaningful way.

“The new Surface takes technology that’s always existed in the backs of stores and brings it front and centre. So now customers and retailers can interact together, a doctor and a patient can have a more immersive consulting experience, and a banker and a customer can sit together and work on a simulation where in past the banker would be the only one in control.”

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