Mobile computing is revolutionizing the workforce. By 2020, it's estimated that 50 percent of the global workforce will be mobile and working remotely. But it's not just where people are working that's changing, it's how they are coming together.
As Microsoft Chief Product Officer Panos Panay highlights, many of today's most effective businesses have a team-based, collaborative culture that fosters creativity and productivity (it's why so many tech giants are moving away from separated, cubicle-based environments to open concept spaces). It's this demographic that Microsoft is targeting with its latest product, the Surface Hub 2.
Microsoft's second-gen Surface Hub features a 4K+ 50.5-inch multi-touch display (3:2 aspect ratio) that was designed from the ground up to be used by teams. Panay says the device is sleeker, more agile and critically, more affordable than its predecessor (although Microsoft hasn't yet revealed pricing).
The giant screen can now rotate into portrait or landscape mode with ease and can be scaled through tiling up to four screens together for larger spaces. Microsoft has even partnered with Steelcase to create a line of rolling stands and mounts to help make the Surface Hub 2 as mobile as it needs to be.
Detailed hardware specifications haven't yet been revealed although I suspect those will be coming in the not-too-distant future. As for the hub itself, Microsoft says it'll begin testing with select commercial customers this year ahead of general availability in 2019.