Multitouch and all that Jazz

Kudos to Microsoft for the announcement about "Surface", the new $5000 hardware device (a digital table top) that uses multitouch technology. Despite being in development since 2001 (as MS are at pains to point out on the website), this to me represents the biggest clue yet that Apple has something similar in the works with Leopard and new Macs (as I predicted back in January 2007).

Obviously, the MS announcement had to be made before WWDC in less than 2 weeks otherwise MS would have been accused of playing catchup. In fact, the masterstroke of pre-announcing the iPhone with its multitouch capabilities already, has already done that to a limited extent.

What's also interesting is the other earth shattering product announcements to be made before WWDC:

HTC to launch an iPhone Killer on 5th June - Link

Palm to Launch new Mobile Device - Link

OK So new products have to be launched sometime but so close to WWDC you have to think these guys are running scared!

I can just imagine Mr Jobs sitting in the D conference this week biting his lip just wishing he was able to talk about the new stuff coming on the 11th June :-)

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Hardware, Apple, Leopard, Microsoft, Steve Jobs