The contrast between Apple and Microsoft is so huge that one can get lost, just trying to outline the corporate differences that exist between the two them. Case and Point: Surface Computing. Apple has had the Tech community claiming trees for the past two years to discover if a 10” Apple Tablet exist or not. The hype has risen to such degree that if Apple announces the iSlate in the January ’10 event, I am sure that they will sell 10M+ in the first year. Just by the power of Hype and marketing, since Tablet PCs have existing for a long time now and guess who brought them to the market? Yes you are right – it was Microsoft. The opposite of this would be Microsoft’s Surface Computing that has been around for the past 2 years. This technology can drive any size screen – from a “Tablet” to a 50” desk-display. It is fast – powerful and totally compatible with Windows 7 and all the applications that you can think of. In contrast with the Apple corporate policy, what does Microsoft do? The hide the damn technology in a deep cellar somewhere in Redmond Campus and throw the key away! Why? What are they waiting for? As a software developer, specializing in GUI and MMI, I’d say that type of approach should be the next logical step in our computing evolution and Man-Machine-Interface. Why hide it? Why not bring it to the main-stream market? Why? This is the clear reason as to why Microsoft seems to be failing in all the fields of computing even though they might have the upper hand in timeline and technology and Apple has the upper hand in every field, even they might not be ahead of anyone in timeline or the technology that they are using (e.g. iPhone). I really hope that Microsoft changes its policies and bring the surface computing to the forefront as the next UI for the next decade and get their Hardware & Software developers to embrace the technology. It’s time to wake up Microsoft and Smell the GUI…