Microsoft’s stunning multi-touch display tech makes its real-world debut at German carmaker BMW, which is to use it in fancy in-dealership product configurators.
“Users can grab digital information with their hands and interact with content by touch and gesture,” say the narrator.
“It’s fun,” adds Franz Wimmer, Innovation Manager of BMW Group.
It’s easy to be cynical – the idea of buying a car using a digital four-square is hardly appetizing – but kudos to Microsoft for getting its perennial Today Show Special Report out of the lab. We’re almost in the future!
BMW Using Microsoft Surface for Product Navigator [BMW Blog via Techmeme]
Gah! No wonder Germans get stuck into stereotypes if they let geniuses like that represent BMW’s (and by extension Germany’s) English speaking skills.
But more on topic: I like this technology alot, but just as with my HTC Touch Diamond and Windows Mobile 6.1, I can’t help but wonder why they use some obviously under-powered chip to rund the back-end. It’s all stutter-stutter (see 0:24 and 0:28). Concerning my mobile handset, it really ruins all the fun of flipping through photos, contacts etc. AFAIK the iPhone does this better, and that will probably be the only time I will ever have said something positiv about Apple