Microsoft Surface Hub Is Delayed Until 2016

Businesses won’t be able to get their hands on Microsoft’s giant Surface Hub systems until 2016, seemingly because of high demand.

The Surface Hub is a large screen whiteboard style device that runs a customised version of Windows 10 and is intended to replace traditional whiteboards in schools and offices.

The 55-inch and 84-inch versions were originally set to be shipped on 1 September, but following a strong response to pre-orders, this date was pushed back to later next month.

Surface Hub delay

“We started taking pre-orders on July 1 and we’ve seen strong demand out of the gate,” said Microsoft’s Brian Hall last month. “Based on the early interest we see, we’re tuning our manufacturing process to prepare for production at broader scale.

“To do this, we are adjusting our product roll-out schedule to ensure we deliver a great customer experience and set our partners up for success. We will not start shipping on September 1 now. We’ll have more details on our updated shipment schedule in early August.”

Now, it won’t be released until 1 January, although you can still pre-order the device.

“Surface Hub devices will begin shipping in January 2016,” added Hall, offering no further details. TechWeekEurope has contacted Microsoft for an explanation but had not received a response at the time of publication.

The collaborative Surface Hub can detect 100 points of multitouch and up to three simultaneous pen inputs. It has dual 1080p front-facing video cameras, and a four-element microphone array that detects and follows voices to eliminate background noise during videoconferencing sessions.

There is also built-in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and a variety of ports for easy wired and wireless connectivity options, allowing devices to share content to the screen. Naturally, Microsoft’s range of software can be used.

However the technology isn’t cheap – the 55 inch edition costs £5,709 and the 84-inch version is £16,269.

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