Surface Surfaces at AT&T

Joe Wilcox News Brief. Is there irony here?

Overnight, Microsoft announced that AT&T would be the first company to commercially deploy Surface Computing tables, from April 17 in four cities: Atlanta, New York City, San Antonio and San Francisco. I guess that means my local Sheraton, here in San Diego, will come later.

Microsoft claims that AT&T will evaluate, based on early deployments, how many more of its 2,200 retail stores would get Surface tabletops.

I find AT&T's Surface skimming to be amusing. For starters, Microsoft launched Surface with another mobile partner, T-Mobile, which was heavily featured in demos over the last 10 months or so. But AT&T gets to market first. It's a coup for AT&T that shows the difficult whiles of technology partnering.

But the amusement gets better. AT&T is the exclusive U.S. carrier for iPhone, which sets up an in-store contest between the multi-touches. Apple's iPhone is a sleek, multi-touch handheld, while Surface is a "big-ass table". I'd love to put an iPhone on the table for multi-touch capability comparisons.

How ironic, when the 3G iPhone comes out, if AT&T shoppers use Surface to make their shopping comparisons.

Last week's Surface ripples: The product will reach consumers around 2010. That's too long, given what Apple is doing. I agree with JupiterResearch Research Director Michael Gartenberg, who last week blogged:

"If I were Microsoft, I'd be embracing the iPhone/iPod Touch platform in a big way, (there are some really obvious apps) and make sure each and everyone was properly branded with the Surface brand. Strong emphasis on doing multi-touch both big and small screen."

Sorry, Microsoft, but Surface is too big a surface.

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