ANZ, Curtin Uni jump on Microsoft Surface

Microsoft has already nabbed its first Australian customers for its multi-touch tabletop system "Surface", with Western Australia's Curtin University of Technology and ANZ Bank flagging plans to deploy the hardware.

Microsoft Surface table (Credit: Suzanne Tindal/ZDNet.com.au)

The platform is a computer screen as large as a small table that acts as a touchscreen that users can interact with. It was first announced in May 2007 and has been available internationally for some time, but has only officially gone on sale in Australia today.

Curtin chief information officer Peter Nikoletatos said in a Microsoft statement that the platform would foster new collaboration opportunities and provide "an engaging educational tool", although he did not reveal exactly how the university would use the technology.

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group general manager of innovation and former chief information officer, Peter Dalton, said the bank would use experience gained from using Surface to work out how it could use touch and surface-based technologies to make managing money simpler and more exciting. The bank had already showed off two Surface units at the Australian Open tennis in Melbourne last month.

Four Australian partners have signed up build applications and solutions on top of Surface. They are local digital marketing agency Amnesia Razorfish, IT services outfit Object Consulting, software firm nsquared and digital product design agency Automatic Studio.

Microsoft Australia managing director Tracey Fellows said the software giant had received "strong interest" from Australian organisations in Surface, including from developers that wanted to create applications "not possible with other technologies".

At the launch, Microsoft said a retail Surface unit would sell for AU$21,000, (compared to US$12,500 in the United States), with the developer unit selling for A$24,000 (which goes for US$15,000 in the US).