Microsoft Surface

Before reading any further, check out http://microsoft.com/surface/ and make your own judgment.

First thought is it's cool, brings back memories of Minority Report. However, after some thought it really looks too good to be true. And here are some reasons I feel it is doomed to failure:

1. Think of the iPhone for a moment. Isn't this the sort of thing Apple have promised, just much smaller? It's 1/20th of the price and surely has far more real world uses.
2. Those demos are crooked. They make the thing appear so easy to use. Far more so than necessary.
3. Apparently they've yet to write any software other than what's included in the demos.
   
4. From the little I've read, it appears that to have the thing identify an item it needs to be barcoded. Now whose barcoding their glass?? Remember that these are at first only being sold to hotels and other public places. So what's the incentive to barcode your belongings if you're only going to be using it briefly?
5. It's expensive - $10,000!!
6. They took 5 years to develop it.
   
7. The last piece of hardware Microsoft tried selling was the Zune.

Please, I'd like to hear if this is just be being anti-Microsoft or if other agree with me. Of all the computer scientists I've asked, they agree with my opinions.

And thanks for all the birthday wishes everyone. Had a great day yesterday!! :D