While the Microsoft Surface line of tablet computers may be struggling in the consumer market, they’re thriving with enterprise clients. Surface has been embraced by Delta Airlines, City National Bank, BMW, Coca-Cola and a number of retailers, medical institutions and education providers.
Microsoft has been working closely with a number of partners that build software and hardware solutions that further help Surface adapt to its corporate environments. We’ve recently seen charging carts designed specifically for the Surface from a company called Anthro. These carts would greatly aid and simplify charging multiple Surface’s in classrooms.
The latest Surface adopters are educational institutions St. Thomas and Selinsgrove School District, whose teachers are singing praise for the device and its abilities to help in the education process.
“This Surface is the single best gift I have gotten from school. It is a life changer. If you took it back today, I would go get another with my own money before I made it home. I use it for work and play. And my students love using them in class.” Said a teacher from St. Thomas.
Selinsgrove School District teachers also praised the Surface, especially compared to the Kindle Fire’s they used before. “The major challenge was the students couldn’t create documents on the Kindles. They couldn’t take notes. They couldn’t do a PowerPoint. They couldn’t create a Word document. So, they really couldn’t create anything on them.”
“Looking ahead to year two of Surface in education, we see Surface being even more effective for teachers to use in the classroom, and for administrators to deploy and manage the device. We are already seeing a great deal of interest among teachers, school administrators and also private and higher education institutions for the new Surface Pro 3 with its larger screen size, improved aspect-ratio for reading textbooks, and best-in-class digital inking experience,” Microsoft stated in an official blog post.
Now that the Surface has proven to be an excellent productivity tool in the workplace, what do you think Microsoft should do to make the hybrid thrive with consumers?
