Microsoft unveils Surface Hub for business collaboration

Microsoft recently unveiled the Surface Hub, a large-screen device meant to dramatically improve business collaboration. The 55-inch and 84-inch interactive displays marry white boards with presentations, voice with video, speakers with addressees, Android with iOS, and Windows 10 with conference rooms. The Surface Hubs will go on sale July 1, and on Sept1, they'll start shipping out of a Microsoft facility about 200 miles south of the company's Redmond, Washington, headquarters.

Microsoft has been developing and manufacturing the Surface Hub at a satellite campus a few miles outside of Portland, in Wilsonville, Oregon. All components except the screens have been developed and produced at the facility. Microsoft owns the company that produces the multitouch display technology for the Hubs. The Surface Hubs are full-featured Windows 10 devices. The larger Hub features a 4K display, while the 55-inch variants output 1080p video.

Microsoft last year started marching to the mantra "mobile first, cloud first." The development and release of touch-sensitive, big screen devices may appear to be a departure from that two-pronged strategy of mobility and cloud connectedness, but it is, in fact, integral to it. Microsoft's mobile and cloud ambitions are trained on improving people's work lives and then following them home via their tablets and Windows Phone handsets.