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Microsoft’s Surface Hub is now apparently a billion-dollar business

arstechnica.com

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Re: Microsoft’s Surface Hub is now apparently a billion-dollar business

#161

Post by paulus_magnus2 »

brazzledazzle wrote: post #135
xzel wrote: post #7

I've been using one at work for a while now and I love them, which to me was a huge suprise. Its a product that finally got almost everything right when it comes to a digital whiteboard. And yes to another point that was raised here certainly integration with Mircosoft services was a plus. Its great to have a computer interface that is remote on half the board and white board interface on the other. You can mock up w…

Can you do remote collaborative whiteboarding? I'm looking at this for either having a Hub at each end or a Hub at one end and a tablet at another. Trying to find a way to bring geographically distributed team members (virtually) closer together.

I tried my luck in this space but couldn't get it off the ground

It's fully functional but lacks polish.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.writelive

Small showcase:

- vector graphics/drawings created by freehand / writing http://write-live.com/d/dba21681-8d3f-4fbe-8b4b-e5c1983df934

- handles more complex drawings: (give it time to load) http://write-live.com/d/7fce10bb-bc39-43d4-a7f1-6bd0d60b9550 http://write-live.com/d/8f9b7846-a7b9-4e5c-b704-dad9aa87d14e

- unlimited* levels of zoom http://docs.write-live.com/WriteliveServer/webview.html?d=34...

- Drawings are stored in the cloud, and can be accessed by multiple devices simultaneously: co-drawing, draw on a tablet, view on tablet / web http://write-live.com/d/538254c5-7d31-41f2-83bb-bcd0a7cee7ab

Re: Microsoft’s Surface Hub is now apparently a billion-dollar business

#162

Post by phatfish »

lnanek2 wrote: post #115

Will have to check it out! The company I'm at has more Chrome boxes than rooms, running meetings with Google Hangouts, but everyone hates them. The controllers randomly stop working and only start again if the dongle is unplugged and replugged or the box is rebooted, not to mention tons of other flakey issues the past week or two particularly. Our leadership complains about wasting 5 minutes of every meeting getting…

Humm, maybe depends on which Chrome Box you choose. In my experience they work very well, only needing a reboot every now and then.

The main issue is people not taking care of equipment in shared spaces like meeting rooms. The technology is usually the least of your problems.

Re: Microsoft’s Surface Hub is now apparently a billion-dollar business

#163

Post by iNate2000 »

komali2 wrote: post #137
hodder wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rapid depreciation isn't necessarily a bad thing for business. iPhones rapidly depreciate, and iPhones are pretty much the biggest business on earth.

Not that I disagree that iPhones are big, but cmon, "the biggest business on earth?" This is a planet that has Oil business, Telecom business, medical products, rice, coffee, fish, illicit drugs, pharmaceutical drugs. There are other businesses that are in a class well beyond a mere consumer electronic device, iPhone or no.

AAPL, GOOG, and MSFT all have market caps larger than XOM

http://dogsofthedow.com/largest-companies-by-market-cap.htm

Re: Microsoft’s Surface Hub is now apparently a billion-dollar business

#164

Post by gwbas1c »

jimbokun wrote: post #93

"In a Forrester report commissioned by Microsoft, it's claimed that meetings start more promptly—less faffing about to get remote attendees dialed in or computers hooked up to the projector—saving 15 to 23 minutes per meeting." Yes, yes, a thousand times yes! Every company I've been at, I've seen this happen over and over and over again, every meeting. I feel like I'm the only one aware of how much time and productiv…

I have zero tolerance for this. I just refuse to use glitchy products, or refuse to meet with people who want to use glitchy telecom software.

Re: Microsoft’s Surface Hub is now apparently a billion-dollar business

#165

Post by Sanddancer »

timtadh wrote: post #38
paulcole wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> iPhones rapidly depreciate I've never heard this before-- and in fact most people seem to say the opposite. Just looked on eBay and according to recent sold listings, as of the past few days a 5 could easily bring $100-150 depending on configuration. That's a 4+ year old phone.

Going from $500 - $700 to $100 is a pretty big depreciation in my book. I guess it is better than going to $0 if that is what you are comparing it to. However, if you compare it to a durable good I do not imagine it compares well. (Example durable good: well built wood furniture)

Compared to good furniture, yeah, but things like a car or a microwave will have a depreciation curve closer to what the iphone has.

Re: Microsoft’s Surface Hub is now apparently a billion-dollar business

#166

Post by Sanddancer »

jimbokun wrote: post #142
GuiA wrote: post #4

The "board" part of Weiser's original "pads, tabs, and boards" vision [0] always made logical sense, but for some reason never realized itself. I'm a bigger fan of the tabletop form factor myself (see for example the original "surface"). It'll be interesting to see how this grows. > to boot, it's a piece of hardware that it got right even in version one Except it's not version one; see the surface and surface 2 befor…

That is an outstanding work of futurology! It gets a lot right, and the parts they get wrong are wrong for interesting and fascinating reasons. Comes really close to forecasting the smart phone, but instead of an intensely personal device, they envision very similar devices that are shared and spread out through the environment. Surface Hub seems to have struck a nerve for the "shared environment" paradigm, wonder if…

Absolutely, though the biggest problems are the walled gardens. Personal pads are a thing -- the various assistants from google, ms, and apple will already do things like take reminders in the form of "remind me to x at y time" or "remind me to z when I'm at w". However, sharing those notes in a reasonable way still isn't a thing as far as I can tell.

Re: Microsoft’s Surface Hub is now apparently a billion-dollar business

#167

Post by Sanddancer »

geobourazanas wrote: post #66

This is much much better and cheaper https://www.acrossio.com

Totally different. That is a web-based chat app. MS is selling a large monitor which has chat, whiteboarding, etc, which doesn't depend on a third-party server to run. If that company goes under a year from now, you have to find another app, retrain everyone to use it, etc. Plus, it doesn't have any hardware, so you still need to set up cameras, microphones, fuss with them if things don't work right, etc. That's what MS is selling, something that's plug and play.

Re: Microsoft’s Surface Hub is now apparently a billion-dollar business

#168

Post by NolF »

youdontknowtho wrote: post #89

If it solves the problem with every meeting where the first ten minutes are spent trying to get the screen setup and the conference line open...it should make a gazillion dollars. Every meeting, every time...How does this work? Which remote? Is the projector even on? Can you see my screen? Which connector do I use? It's painful.

Do people not set up the room 15 minutes before the session starts just to sort out those kinds of issues? That way it's only 15 man-minutes rather than 15*n man-minutes. Seems unprofessional.

Re: Microsoft’s Surface Hub is now apparently a billion-dollar business

#169

Post by scholia »

iNate2000 wrote: post #163
komali2 wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not that I disagree that iPhones are big, but cmon, "the biggest business on earth?" This is a planet that has Oil business, Telecom business, medical products, rice, coffee, fish, illicit drugs, pharmaceutical drugs. There are other businesses that are in a class well beyond a mere consumer electronic device, iPhone or no.

AAPL, GOOG, and MSFT all have market caps larger than XOM http://dogsofthedow.com/largest-companies-by-market-cap.htm

Sure, but the market cap is a projection of future profits, not the actual size of the business.

Re: Microsoft’s Surface Hub is now apparently a billion-dollar business

#170

Post by NamTaf »

NolF wrote: post #168
youdontknowtho wrote: post #89

If it solves the problem with every meeting where the first ten minutes are spent trying to get the screen setup and the conference line open...it should make a gazillion dollars. Every meeting, every time...How does this work? Which remote? Is the projector even on? Can you see my screen? Which connector do I use? It's painful.

Do people not set up the room 15 minutes before the session starts just to sort out those kinds of issues? That way it's only 15 man-minutes rather than 15*n man-minutes. Seems unprofessional.

Not when the people in the meeting prior are still in the room 3-4 minutes after the hour/half hour and then they all shuffle out laughing about how they are "sorry" they've gone over time but not really because if they were they wouldn't be the same people doing it again and again and holy shit I want to bury an ice pick in their faces.
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