I'm pretty sure the best part of this is the built in RJ11 and RS232 ports. The application for these devices because of this is actually pretty staggering, you can have them control all sorts of stuff directly, like existing x10 automated offices etc.
These prices make no damn sense at all These don't even have current generation chips and the 55" has a Core i5 processor. They only has 8GB of RAM! I understand the touchscreen aspect is the main draw here, but these prices make no sense. Make that 55" 4K, give it a current generation Core i7 chip with 16GB of RAM and 512GB SSD and a $4999 price point. And do the same with the 84" but give it a $7999 price point.
Prices are driven by demand, not by component cost. According to the article, "That is not inexpensive at all, but it should actually be less expensive that some of the other conference room solutions, and yet pack in technology that they can’t offer". By their research, these price points do make sense. What research of current conference room technologies and their costs do you have to offer that counter this claim?
Additionally, the price of this device has to cover the costs of development, not just components. As this will probably not be as high volume a device, as, say, the Surface tablets, the margin needs to be much higher to cover those costs.
Can you explain the need for the additional hardware specs you list? What would having 16GB vs 8 allow the device to do? Does the increased SSD size fill a specific need?
Completely agree. There's nothing a conference room PC needs to do that requires 16GB of ram. Applications needing more ram would likely not be installed on the PC.
I think he's looking at the maximum performance, like he would use it as an all-in-one akin to a giant iMac. Games would work better with 16GB of RAM, but that won't be your bottleneck with that GPU. If it had a PCIe slot that'd be a different story, but the market for that just isn't there.
It's plentiful for presentation. You don't play games or demo weird stuff on it. You write stuff on it! If you want to demo a rendering, that's what the ports are for.
It's well thought product, you're just showing your incomprehension on what is written in the spec table.
his tech is derived from Perceptive Pixel which MS bought a few years ago. I've had experience with those panels and the applications you can use these panels with are awesome. They also had a much much heftier HW requirement so they have greatly improved the tech. A 55" panel in 2011 was well north of 55k for it and the supporting hardware! The hardware in teh panel is mainly for driving the Hub itself. Most light weight apps will of course run just fine. Everything else will be run on a back end.
pro/business products cost a lot... usually you are not paying so much for the actual product but for 1st class support and warranty... if your $500 dell laptop breaks you have to sit on the phone with india for an hour and maybe they will ship you a replacement in a week or so. If your $20k business tablet breaks, they will overnight you a new one with a tech to do the install, etc...
I find it amusing to see people looking at this as if it was a consumer product and decrying the price. I look at this as a replacement for Lync Room Systems and based on that, the pricing is pretty good! Especially considering the optically bonded touch screens. I've done a 5 site LRS deployment recently, and look forward to the opportunity to put in Surface Hubs instead on a future job
Hate to say this, but the majority of my workplace's projectors were stuck with VGA/D-Sub input. They don't want to spend a penny on whiteboard/projector. I wonder how many companies are willing to invest in e-Whiteboard kind of things.
Seems like you would need to two screens for collaborative conferencing. One for the video feed; one for the white space. Also, people tend to tire of using vertical touchscreen pretty quickly. Arms don't like it. It's actually a heck of a lot easier to collaborate via iPad or mouse while sitting. What will the other people be looking at while you're up there writing on the whiteboard anyway? Your armpits?
those prices are insane and how can a "TV" weigh 127kg?? also the 55-inch model should be 4k as well, since the presenter will stand directly in front of it. i mean that's the whole point: the touchscreen and the interactivity.
i'm sure some fortune 500 corps will outfit their meeting rooms with those things, but from a technical standpoint those things have no right to be this expensive and weigh this much.
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K_Space - Wednesday, June 10, 2015 - link
Any idea who's supplying the panels?Brett Howse - Wednesday, June 10, 2015 - link
Not sure, the panel is the only thing not assembled by Microsoft.Morawka - Wednesday, June 10, 2015 - link
Looks to be LGblaktron - Wednesday, June 10, 2015 - link
I'm pretty sure the best part of this is the built in RJ11 and RS232 ports. The application for these devices because of this is actually pretty staggering, you can have them control all sorts of stuff directly, like existing x10 automated offices etc.quiksilvr - Wednesday, June 10, 2015 - link
These prices make no damn sense at all These don't even have current generation chips and the 55" has a Core i5 processor. They only has 8GB of RAM! I understand the touchscreen aspect is the main draw here, but these prices make no sense. Make that 55" 4K, give it a current generation Core i7 chip with 16GB of RAM and 512GB SSD and a $4999 price point. And do the same with the 84" but give it a $7999 price point.bminor13 - Wednesday, June 10, 2015 - link
Prices are driven by demand, not by component cost. According to the article, "That is not inexpensive at all, but it should actually be less expensive that some of the other conference room solutions, and yet pack in technology that they can’t offer". By their research, these price points do make sense. What research of current conference room technologies and their costs do you have to offer that counter this claim?Additionally, the price of this device has to cover the costs of development, not just components. As this will probably not be as high volume a device, as, say, the Surface tablets, the margin needs to be much higher to cover those costs.
Can you explain the need for the additional hardware specs you list? What would having 16GB vs 8 allow the device to do? Does the increased SSD size fill a specific need?
mpschan - Wednesday, June 10, 2015 - link
Completely agree. There's nothing a conference room PC needs to do that requires 16GB of ram. Applications needing more ram would likely not be installed on the PC.at80eighty - Wednesday, June 10, 2015 - link
you could be doing analytics reviews & brainstorming - many applications in the analytics & BI field would gobble 16GB without blinkingishould - Wednesday, June 10, 2015 - link
I think he's looking at the maximum performance, like he would use it as an all-in-one akin to a giant iMac. Games would work better with 16GB of RAM, but that won't be your bottleneck with that GPU. If it had a PCIe slot that'd be a different story, but the market for that just isn't there.WorldWithoutMadness - Wednesday, June 10, 2015 - link
It's plentiful for presentation. You don't play games or demo weird stuff on it. You write stuff on it!If you want to demo a rendering, that's what the ports are for.
It's well thought product, you're just showing your incomprehension on what is written in the spec table.
Klimax - Thursday, June 11, 2015 - link
Touchscreen of these sizes is extremely expensive. Wouldn't surprise me if it consists of fairly high percentage of price (even up to 40%)Manch - Friday, June 12, 2015 - link
his tech is derived from Perceptive Pixel which MS bought a few years ago. I've had experience with those panels and the applications you can use these panels with are awesome. They also had a much much heftier HW requirement so they have greatly improved the tech. A 55" panel in 2011 was well north of 55k for it and the supporting hardware! The hardware in teh panel is mainly for driving the Hub itself. Most light weight apps will of course run just fine. Everything else will be run on a back end.kpxgq - Friday, June 19, 2015 - link
pro/business products cost a lot... usually you are not paying so much for the actual product but for 1st class support and warranty... if your $500 dell laptop breaks you have to sit on the phone with india for an hour and maybe they will ship you a replacement in a week or so. If your $20k business tablet breaks, they will overnight you a new one with a tech to do the install, etc...jcsazon1 - Tuesday, June 6, 2017 - link
work with them and then make it happen loljcsazon1 - Tuesday, June 6, 2017 - link
I want my graphs and texts in 4k lolnandnandnand - Wednesday, June 10, 2015 - link
Other outlets say 220 lbs for the large one. What do they actually weigh???Brett Howse - Wednesday, June 10, 2015 - link
it's 280 according to their specs page http://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-surface-hub/en-...p1esk - Wednesday, June 10, 2015 - link
How do they drive 4k @120Hz? Dual DP ports?Ytterbium - Wednesday, June 10, 2015 - link
If MST DP can do 4k 60Hz then makes sense that 4 could do 120Hz, that's why it has Quadro as they often have 4 DP outputs.ishould - Wednesday, June 10, 2015 - link
These can practically only be used in business applications at 280lbs. Joe Shmoe's wall isn't going to be able to hang 280lbsmkozakewich - Thursday, June 11, 2015 - link
Joe Shmoe's wallet isn't going to be able to hang $20,000chizow - Wednesday, June 10, 2015 - link
Price for the 55" isn't that far off what we pay for a TelePresence SX20 + HDTV at work, and its probably a more elegant solution overall.Kinda interesting, may have to call our MS rep and see if we can get one to validate.
mr_tawan - Wednesday, June 10, 2015 - link
> (1) USB 2.0 type B Touchback™ Output/td>The td tag is not properly closed, I guessed.
NZLion - Wednesday, June 10, 2015 - link
I find it amusing to see people looking at this as if it was a consumer product and decrying the price. I look at this as a replacement for Lync Room Systems and based on that, the pricing is pretty good! Especially considering the optically bonded touch screens. I've done a 5 site LRS deployment recently, and look forward to the opportunity to put in Surface Hubs instead on a future jobDigitalFreak - Thursday, June 11, 2015 - link
This is exactly what I was thinking as well. The LRS costs more and is kind of a kludge (at least the Crestron ones are).loimlo - Thursday, June 11, 2015 - link
Hate to say this, but the majority of my workplace's projectors were stuck with VGA/D-Sub input. They don't want to spend a penny on whiteboard/projector. I wonder how many companies are willing to invest in e-Whiteboard kind of things.at80eighty - Thursday, June 11, 2015 - link
just enough have to, so the next gen gets more affordable for the next tier of potential customersDubbledor - Thursday, June 11, 2015 - link
Seems like you would need to two screens for collaborative conferencing. One for the video feed; one for the white space. Also, people tend to tire of using vertical touchscreen pretty quickly. Arms don't like it. It's actually a heck of a lot easier to collaborate via iPad or mouse while sitting. What will the other people be looking at while you're up there writing on the whiteboard anyway? Your armpits?fokka - Thursday, June 11, 2015 - link
those prices are insane and how can a "TV" weigh 127kg?? also the 55-inch model should be 4k as well, since the presenter will stand directly in front of it. i mean that's the whole point: the touchscreen and the interactivity.i'm sure some fortune 500 corps will outfit their meeting rooms with those things, but from a technical standpoint those things have no right to be this expensive and weigh this much.
mkozakewich - Thursday, June 11, 2015 - link
You had me at 280 lbs!