Who will be the first to Microsoft Surface in the UK?

The Microsoft Surface looks like a giant touch screen set into a table. It allows users to interact with digital content through natural hand gestures, touch and physical objects. The press releases show people drawing with their fingers, sorting photos by dragging them and moving maps around and then bringing up information about various places. None of these applications are anything new but the use of gestures (similar to the iPhone) and the way a group of people can sit around it and use it together makes it great entertainment. It would certainly add a wow factor to any store and would be a draw to a wide cross section on the population. It might provide that retail theatre that is so often talked about. For more information go to http://www.microsoft.com/surface/

For a retailer though, having got the customers into the store, the aim is to sell some goods as well as provide some entertainment. So what applications could be run on it?

• It could be a fun guided selling tool. It can recognise a product put down on it and provide detailed information about the product, in a format that can be enjoyed by a group.
• What about selling processes that currently involve everyone huddling around a pc? – kitchen design, furniture ordering. How much more fun and friendly this would be when sat around a Surface.

AT&T in the US are the first retailer to deploy the Surface. Is this an expensive red herring which really does not offer huge benefit over more traditional and, presumably, less expensive hardware? Or is the wow factor sufficient to justify the investment? Who will be the first in the UK?

What is a kiosk?

I visited Hostec last week (the main technology show for the hospitality industry). One trend which hospitality and retail share is the enthusiasm for kiosks.

If anything, the business case for kiosks is even more compelling for hospitality than for retail. Replacing staff to man the front desk all night with a kiosk which can accept a credit card and issue a key card has a compelling business case. CityInns and Zleep hotels are making progress towards this with kiosks from Ariane Systems.

But kiosks come in many guises from vending machines selling essentials you might have forgotten to the check in/out scenario. In fact, could an automated minibar be classified as a kiosk?