Microsoft Confirms Next-Gen Surface Hub

Thinking About the Future of Surface Hub

Microsoft is getting ready to launch the Surface Hub 2 this year. The company confirmed on Friday that it is working on a new version of its hugely successful interactive whiteboard, though it is not giving away many details on the new product as of yet.

The company has been believed to be working on the Surface Hub 2 for a while, internally known as Aruba. Microsoft plans to announce the new Surface Hub in the first half of this year, and it will bring improved hardware design as well as new software. Microsoft plans on bringing the software features to the original Surface Hub with a software update this year as well.

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“Surface Hub created an entirely new device category and we’re thrilled with the strong momentum we have seen across the globe. We’re working on V2 and will share more in the first half of this year,” said a spokesperson, confirming the company’s plans.

Microsoft’s Surface Hub has been a surprise hit for the company, and the company has over 5000 customers across 25 markets worldwide — up from the 2000 customers figure it shared back in December 2016. Microsoft told Thurrott.com that the company will not be able to meet the stronger demand for the device this year due to difficulties in production at a huge scale. Redmond is informing customers about the inventory issues this week, and they can choose to either get the original Surface Hub or wait for the next-gen Surface Hub, which we expect to be announced this May at Build 2018.

In other, related news, Microsoft is working on bringing native integration for its Teams service to the Surface Hub in the coming months as well.

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Conversation 25 comments

  • mrdrwest

    09 March, 2018 - 9:30 am

    <p>I've yet to see one in the wild.</p>

    • Chris_Kez

      Premium Member
      09 March, 2018 - 9:51 am

      <blockquote><a href="#251768"><em>In reply to mrdrwest:</em></a></blockquote><p>With "over 5000 customers across 25 markets worldwide" it is highly unlikely you will ever see one. </p>

    • TheJoeFin

      Premium Member
      09 March, 2018 - 10:00 am

      <blockquote><a href="#251768"><em>In reply to mrdrwest:</em></a></blockquote><p>How often are you walking around inside buildings of Fortune 500 companies?</p>

    • VancouverNinja

      Premium Member
      09 March, 2018 - 10:44 am

      <blockquote><a href="#251768"><em>In reply to mrdrwest:</em></a></blockquote><p>I saw one at a MS store and it was impressive. They have done a nice job with it and it makes sense for companies that can afford to take on the cost.</p>

  • will

    Premium Member
    09 March, 2018 - 10:18 am

    <p>We have one and initially it was not used much, but people are using it more and more for meetings. </p>

  • VancouverNinja

    Premium Member
    09 March, 2018 - 10:43 am

    <p>We want this so bad!!! Only one issue stopped us from pulling the trigger, we felt a few of the hardware features were just shy of having a reasonable longevity based on them being replaced with newer updated versions. The next version should align nicely with our needs. </p><p><br></p><p>We have an 80" screen in our board room for video conference calls and general meetings. A Surface Hub with touch capabilities and matching software would take our productivity to another level. We will most likely purchase the next gen version. </p>

  • Roger Ramjet

    09 March, 2018 - 11:49 am

    <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent;">The Hub is sort of like the Studio, and even HoloLens, a "critically acclaimed" product, but not pervasive in the market. I think the simple reason Hub/Studio cases is cost/spec and I think this can be fixed over a product lifecycle. Ultimately, there must be many 100s of thousands approachable enterprises worldwide for this, so, at 5000 customers, I would not describe it as "a huge success" except in the acclaim part, but it is on track, if they can over time fix the issues keeping these products in rarified air.</span></p>

    • VancouverNinja

      Premium Member
      09 March, 2018 - 5:37 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#251821"><em>In reply to Roger Ramjet:</em></a></blockquote><p>The number is customers, not installed units. They are saying they cannot fulfil the orders they have at this point due to production limitations. I would take that as positive sign considering how expensive the units are.</p>

      • Roger Ramjet

        10 March, 2018 - 12:03 am

        <blockquote><a href="#251898"><em>In reply to VancouverNinja:</em></a></blockquote><p>I know it's customers. I was trying to think of some sort of back of envelop thing on this and I figure 5 units/customer x 5000 customers x $20k/unit net revenue to Microsoft, that's $500mm, over 2 years? so $250mm/year product. Not bad, but nowhere near anything one could describe as a home run for Microsoft, so, this is definitely in the early part of development for them, and therefore cant say it's a "huge success", it could be in future, but it's TBD.</p><p>The part about not being able to fulfill demand, I think you have to write that down to something they need to fix rather than a sign of too much success. This is not just a new product but a new product integration, and also not a bad idea to be conservative, rather than go on an investment binge, so, one can forgive bottlenecks. The reason you have to do so is we know Microsoft can't be in the game to top out at $250mm/year (in the "huge success" scenario), or at 5000 customers per 2 years. I don't disagree these are positive signs, I just don't think you can go overboard on things here. Of course, they might not be into this product for the money. It also clearly serves as lock in for MS productivity software use, but even in that case, they need to get far more than 2500 enterprise &amp; business customers annually. </p><p><br></p><p>btw, I up voted your comment, which I think is great. </p>

  • jimchamplin

    Premium Member
    09 March, 2018 - 11:49 am

    <p>What are the hardware specifications of this beast?</p>

  • colin79666

    Premium Member
    09 March, 2018 - 2:42 pm

    <p>If Microsoft produced a reasonably priced version (sub $2500 US) they could take over the education market for these things.</p>

  • mclark2112

    Premium Member
    09 March, 2018 - 4:15 pm

    <p>Just sell the software and let us provide the touchscreen and peripherals! Do what you do best and stay out of the TV game.</p>

  • ayebang

    10 March, 2018 - 1:24 am

    <p>Surface Hub may be the cause of the death of projectors.</p><p><br></p><p>Not to mention Google also is developing another Surface Hup like.</p>

  • nateferguson

    12 March, 2018 - 1:33 am

    <p>The part about not having the capacity to satisfy request, I think you need to record that to something they have to settle as opposed to an indication of a lot of accomplishment. This isn't only another item however another item combination, and furthermore not an awful plan to be preservationist, as opposed to go on a speculation fling, along these lines <a href="https://www.essayperks.com/&quot; target="_blank">write my essay</a>, one can excuse bottlenecks. The reason you need to do as such is we know Microsoft can't be in the diversion. Also that accept it's one unit for every client. The chances are that there were multi unit buys.</p>

  • Jules Wombat

    12 March, 2018 - 3:35 pm

    <p>We have 2x Surface Hubs and 2 x Hololones in our Innovation labs. Interesting demo technology, but still not quite compelling Use Cases. </p>

  • RR

    13 March, 2018 - 2:18 am

    <p>WTF spammer click bait alert below – looks like this bot @nateferguson below just transposed part of my earlier post into bad English and posted with a link to someplace that I am sure is not good</p>

  • hedryjullius

    28 July, 2018 - 1:33 am

    <p><span style="background-color: rgb(239, 243, 251); color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Paul Thurrott is an award-winning technology journalist and blogger with over 20 years of industry experience and the author of over 25 books. He is the News Director for the Petri IT Knowledgebase, the majordomo at Thurrott.com, and the co-host of three tech podcasts.</span><a href="https://www.howedid.com/&quot; target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(239, 243, 251); color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">https://www.howedid.com/</a></p&gt;

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