Microsoft's "Surface" to Emerge First at AT&T Stores

Remember Microsoft's Surface, the sort of Minority Report-type interface in a tabletop format? At CTIA on Tuesday Microsoft and AT&T announced that Surface will - well, surface - first at AT&T stores, in its first use in a retail environment.

In a press release, Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO, AT&T Mobility said:

"We are thrilled to bring this groundbreaking new technology to our stores so we can introduce customers to their mobile worlds in a very personal and easy way . We look forward to working with Microsoft to continue developing new ways for our customers to learn about the ever-growing lineup of mobile devices and applications."

It's also a way to hopefully get people to come in, right? Just to look and play with the darn thing?

But they do have interesting plans for the use of Surface. For example, potential customers can:

• Learn. Customers can review features of a particular mobile device by simply placing it on the display. Surface will recognize the device and provide a graphical overview of its capabilities. Customers will be able to place two devices side by side on the unit and easily compare their features.
  

• Explore. Customers view interactive coverage maps at the national, state, local or street level, using simple touch and hand movement to scale and move the maps, determining their coverage area.
  

• Customize. In the future, customers will be able to drag and drop ring tones, graphics, video and more by “grabbing” content with their hands from a menu on the display and “dropping” it into the phone.

Want to be one of the first to see it? New York City, Atlanta, San Antonio and the San Francisco area will be the first places to get it, on April 17th. Then it will expand "based on the success of the first phase of deployments." Hmmm.