Today at the Google Cloud Next conference, Google announced the pricing details on ‘Jamboard,’ a 55-inch 4K Whiteboard which is designed for workplace collaboration. The product is essentially very similar to Microsoft’s Surface Hub, which has proven to be in high demand ever since release in March of 2016.
Overall, the Jamboard will be released sometime in May for the price of $4,999, which is considerably cheaper than the initial $8,999 starting price of Microsoft’s Surface Hub. Asides from the price, a different choice of enterprise software and operating system, and Surface Hub’s allowing for 100 simultaneous touch points versus the Jamboard’s 16, the differences may end there. According to The Verge, Jamboard will require a $600 annual support fee, with other specs including the following:
- 55-inch 4K UHD display
- 120 Hz touch scan rate / 60 Hz video refresh rate
- 16 simultaneous touch points
- Handwriting and shape recognition
- Built-in tilt support / Built-in wide-angle camera
- Down-firing speakers / Built-in microphones
- NFC
- HDMI 2.0, USB Type C, 2 X USB 3.0
- SPDIF audio out
- Wi-Fi 802.11ac 2×2 / 1 Gigabyte Ethernet
- Google Cast
- 2 x Fine tip passive stylus, Eraser, Microfiber cloth
- Rolling stand is an additional accessory
While Surface Hub is a Windows 10 device that runs UWP apps, one can wonder if Jamboard can really compete, given that it appears the device can only the G Suite of cloud-based tools and ecosystem. It will, nonetheless, be interesting to see if Google’s Jamboard will take off in the ever growing workplace collaboration market. Do you think that Jamboard will compete with Surface Hub? Let us know what you think by dropping us a comment below!
