Microsoft revealed its Surface, an immersing, touch-sensitive table-top computer this week. The Surface is supposed to come out in the Fall of 2007. The Surface has reminiscent technologies to those developed by Jeffery Yan(NYU Department of Computer Science) and MERL (Mitsubishi Electronic Research Lab) and imagined by Apple (with the Knowledge Navigator in 1987) in the film Minority Report. Besides the touch-sensitive interface the Surface espouses to enable "object" recognition. If you place your digital camera on the table, it'll "sync" itself and load the images, as well cellphones, mp3 players, etc. All in all the concept is solid and innovative.

There has been the obvious stances, from PC users who say "This is the greatest innovation in computers ever" and Mac users who say "Ugh, Microsoft stole the idea from Apple". Its nearly impossible to have a balanced or an un-opinionated viewpoint if you're at all involved or knowledgeable about technology. Diggnation (a podcast related to popular stories posted on the Digg website) recently had such a debate between the hosts. One glaringly obvious reason for speculation about the Surface is trust. Microsoft has a tendency to over promise and under deliver. The Vista (aka Longhorn) was introduced in July 2005, and not fully released until January 2007. Windows XP was released but full of bugs and security issues. The likelihood (based on history) of the Surface being what its said to be and delivered when planned is remote.

To be fair Apple is currently in the same predicament with the AppleTV. The potential and promise of AppleTV compared to its actual performance marks a small misstep in a stellar track record of Apple's release of life-style products. The major difference between the Surface and Apple TV is that Apple in recent years has a record of releasing products that do and act as they are projected to; released when they're scheduled (give or take a few weeks,, sometimes months; not years) and push the market into far advanced, user friendly innovations.

I remain pessimistically optimistic about the Surface and truly hope that Microsoft can deliver what it promises; after all its not just about brand loyalty, but about consumer productivity and advancement.