$20k for something like this isn't exactly astronomical, I don't see how the pricing is absurd. Does anyone here even do hardware purchasing? Do you know how much a 1U or 2U pizza box can cost? Hint: Depending on specs, at least $10k USD, if not more.<p>If companies can find an application that fits their needs, the cost is justified.
I found the reporting wanting (but this is techcrunch :-) but lately have been thinking about this sort of application. Sort of an office view screen. Now that I've got a bunch more people I interact with regularly all around the world this sort of thing is more useful. But $20K isn't the price point where I expect these to take off. Especially given that a 4K 84" TV (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/LG-Electronics-84LM9600-84-Inch-LED-LCD/dp/B00B10UAAS" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/LG-Electronics-84LM9600-84-Inch-LED-LC...</a>) is about $8k and a really nice machine to drive it and to OCV vision for knowing where you are touching it is less than $2K, the "make it" seems to be so much less than the "buy it" choice I wonder if it loses on that basis.<p>From a practicality point of view having a "whiteboard" that you can bring from meeting to meeting seems like a win, and if you can share it with someone else's screen in a remote location even better. And since you're probably replacing a projector set up in your conference room ($3K for a 1080p projector, $1.5K for a more modest one) that is a benefit.<p>I wonder if they will have these in their stores, it would be interesting to see one operate.
I've been working with these for the last couple weeks, and I must admit it's pretty well done and incredibly useful for whiteboard brainstorming. Just the ability to have shared documentation updated in real time is very productive.
If you can afford Cisco's equivalent stuff you can afford this.<p>Still: probably not a product they expect immense amount of orders for at this point.
The price point is good for enterprise but don't expect to see them around. Surface Hub is huge opportunity though for other applications in markets that can't afford it.
So their market is large corps that want to show off, and set designers for James Bond movies and police procedurals. (Can definitely see this on the likes of CSI: Cyber.)
Surface Hub == Big touchscreen TV, computer, MS Windows, true or false? Is there more to it than the packaging, and is this the only way to get that "more"?