Microsoft’s future vision ranked most shared video of the week

By Tom Warren, on 4th Nov 11 1:58 pm with 57 Comments

Microsoft’s vision of the future video has ranked as the most shared video of the week.

The software giant revealed its Productivity Future Vision video last week and it became an instant web hit. The video has racked up nearly 2 million views on YouTube in just over a week. Brand Republic, a site that monitors the advertising, marketing, media and communications industries, reports that the video is being shared the most on social networks. Brand Republic claims that the video has racked up 170,000 shares on Facebook, 13,000 tweets and over 300 blog posts to date.

The latest video builds on Microsoft’s previous concepts of touch based computing anywhere and everywhere. The video opens with a business woman visiting Johannesburg and having the audio around her translated in real time thanks to some futuristic glasses. Other scenes in the video feature highly personalized experiences and touch computing on every surface. Microsoft previously created an “Office 2019” video which also features the same opaque smartphones and touch walls.

  • http://twitter.com/s_a_r_k_i_s sarkis chamelian

    ME GUSTA

  • Justfortherecord

    Righteous!

  • Guest

    Great video. But you can’t sell visions. C’mon MS, let’s see the products.

    • Seth_p

      True, but you can inspire and motivate the teams within Microsoft… or well, other people

    • Guest

      Then keep it internal and only release the subsequent products externally. But I’d question why you need it to motivate the teams. Pick the right people and they should be self-motivated.

    • Guest

      Wait what? How can you see video as a negative? Microsoft do amazing concept videos all the time. They are actually quite a transparent company when it comes to long term goals, unlike apple. Both strategies have their pros and cons though.

      These videos are good for everyone; people with Microsoft stock know that the company is aiming for big things, the whole company knows what they are working towards and importantly the consumer thinks “wow Microsoft is amazing, what products do they have now?”.
      It also is good at rejecting claims that “Microsoft just copies” or that since Microsoft has already “put a computer on every desk” they no longer serve a purpose.

    • Anonymous

      Microsoft doesn’t really produce hardware though, so they also want manufacturers to get some good ideas.

    • Anonymous

      Microsoft doesn’t really produce hardware though, so they also want manufacturers to get some good ideas.

      Yeah but Guest said MSFT should just STFU and produce some crapware or something.

    • Anonymous

      Its to show people the direction of where MS is going to go a company without a goal is a company that fails and this is what they are trying to do unify smart phones, tablets, laptops, pcs, tvs, console’s into just screens and have those screens talk about to a cloud where all of your infromation is stored.

      It is slowly getting there one step at a time

    • Bburke33609

      Microsoft telegraphs it’s punches. If it didn’t everyone would say they never do anything. MS can’t do an apple style sell because no one wants minor increments that add minor features. I don’t think it would be bad for them to go that route technologically speaking but it would be a PR nightmare if they dropped a windows 7.1 for 30$ then a year later dropped 7.2 for 30$.  

    • Guest

      “Microsoft telegraphs it’s punches. If it didn’t everyone would say they never do anything.”

      Yes it does, but why? It violates every rule of competition. And the second statement really sets a low bar. This is a company that spends more on R&D than Apple and Google combined. Surely that can result in some visible game changing innovation on a frequent basis, not one Kinect or Sharepoint every decade? 

    • Guest

      Do you see Apple doing concept videos about the future any more? Is anyone questioning their strong unified vision for the future or record of delivering products that are taking us there?

      MS now has a well deserved reputation for grand visions that rarely materialize. When you have that and put out a video like this, it just backfires. Look at the youtube comments, for example. Many are just laughing at this coming from MS. I don’t think you turn that kind of negativity around with videos. You have to start delivering innovative products and marketing them effectively.  MS is  slowly starting to do the former, but still sucks at the latter.

      The other risk of releasing these visions is that it tips your hand and allows competitors to copy you and even beat you to market, as did the Longhorn concept, the original Office future vision, and Courier.  

      If MS has a strong integrated company-wide vision of the future (highly questionable), then they should deliver products against that and market the heck out of them.  Ultimately that’s the only way they will reverse the general perception of the company as a laggard, and it’s the only way they’re going to continue growing.

    • Anonymous

      No I don’t see Apple’s future concepts but it would be nice to see its probably going to be similar to what MS is trying to do.

      All I have to say is the way MS is shaping up its gearing towards that direction Metro UI unification of devices one OS one cloud type of environment.

      We will see what happens in the next 5 – 7 years but 2012 is a big year. The thing about MS is that they havev the basis covered Business check, Television/Gaming check, Communication check, Media distribution check, Search check, Cloud check other companies dont have that big of a aresenal to compete against them all they have to do is unify everything and release a simplistic platform

    • Anonymous

      Ok you’re just trolling behind a cowardly psuedonym. I’m flagging every one of your posts.

    • Alique Williams

      @WebUser:disqus ArrowSmith

      Why? He makes a very strong point here. Microsoft has a very poor record of the length of time it turns concepts into reality. Look at tellme. Siri is everything tellme was suppose to be. Now, we’ll probably have to wait for Apollo to get something close to similar.

    • Anonymous

      Begone troll.

    • Alique Williams

      I don’t see any trolling. Your replys, however, are.

    • Bburke33609

      MS Research already has that technology working. There was a demonstration just like that on this site a couple months ago. The reason why it isn’t a current product being demoed in the way windows 8 is that it involves surface which is a very niche product. Would you watch tv on tabletop? You would maybe play some games like RTS but the majority of games would be suited to it.

      It would be of use for business but the price needs to come own and move it to larger and smaller form factors like putting into the door of a fridge where you could drage a recipe off your browser on your mobile to it or a conference table for meetings for it to turn into something you would go to a store to purchase. For it to really turn into a mainstream product there needs to be cross platform since it doesn’t look like MS will have anykind of monopoly on mobile devices.

      MS had a video a couple of years ago showing the future of mobile where you could choose very specific data like realtime flight info conveniently on your mobile device etc… and that happened pretty much just like the microsoft future video said.

      http://blip.tv/pixelartist/microsoft-future-1845089

      http://techspy.com/news/834324/kinect-windows-phone-7-surface-and-slate-integration-shown-off-in-video 

    • Guest

      “and that happened pretty much just like the microsoft future video said. ”

      Except of course that rather than people using a MS mobile, they’re mostly using one from Apple or Google. That’s the problem with R&D. On it’s own it’s of little practical value. MS needs to get far more out of its R&D investment or shelve it and for a mostly buy vs build strategy like Apple has.

    • http://twitter.com/DavidElroyGreen Antonio Raga

      Marketing in 2011 is quite complicated and it’s even more complicated for Microsoft which constantly faces cross fires from pratically everywhere. Then we all should be aware that MS is a big spender in terms of R&D, more than Apple or Google (anyone? hello?) do.
      Undoubtly it would be fine to see these “intentional” videos end up in a real product but many of them, such as Kinect od speech recognition on Windows Phones, are already on the market.
      A company without a vision is a sitting duck, so it’s cool to see video like these spotted in the wild.
      Another cool example was the more popular Office video “productivity Future Vision”.
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5X2PxtvMsU

  • http://www.about.me/AngeloGopaul Eingoluq

    That’s how windows 8 should look like… not the colour full mess it is now!

    • Frylockns86

      You’re right. Colorful tiles and buttons will never work.

      Oh wait, what’s this?
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LCARS

    • Seth_p

      lol :P

    • http://profiles.google.com/jdax3041 James Matthews

      Nicely done.

    • http://www.about.me/AngeloGopaul Eingoluq

      Are you idiotic or something? Thats not a real product
      Anyway, you link actually emphasises my point. The colours are not the problem is the amount of clashing colours. LCARS has harmony in colours, windows 8 does not.
      Looking at this video Windows 8′s start screen is a bit noisy.

  • Anonymous

    Apple will make it happen. Just like they do with Siri. TellMe vision is still vision.

    • Anonymous

      Apple didnt make Siri, it was already on development by another company, they just bougth it and put it on their phones

    • Guest

      Right. They bought it for a few hundred million and within a year, further enhanced it, integrated it into iOS, and made it the core selling feature for the 4S. They’re also busy using it as the navigation for the new TV.

      MS didn’t make TellMe either. They bought it, only for more than twice as much money as Apple paid for Siri, used it for Xbox, and then put out visions of the future videos which Apple ended up realizing via Siri.

    • Anonymous

      Still, they didnt have “that vision”, other company did and started working on it. Apple saw that the vision they had was good and bought it.

      I dont say that was wrong, just that wasnt their original idea.

    • Guest

      @userx1:disqus 

      The only thing that matters in the market is what you ship. There’s no A for effort or being the original who got passed by someone else.

    • Anonymous

      Yeah because Microsoft just doesn’t know how to ship real products to market. Windows 7 hasn’t sold 450 million copies, it’s just vaporware. 57.5 million XBox 360s? Nah.

    • john

      Siri is not that amazing. You would know this if you have actually used it.

    • Guest

      A few hundred formal reviews disagree with you.

    • Anonymous

      Another troll. Ban Guest accounts now!

    • Guest

      @ArrowSmith:disqus 

      Pot, meet kettle.

    • Alique Williams

      Siri isn’t amazing? I have a WP7, but use my mothers, sister and friends Siri regularly. I’m amazed by how it seems to process my speech far better than tellme. Routinely, if there is the slightess noise in the background, tellme would misinterpret what I just said. Replicating the same environment with Siri, it would somehow get it right.

      Had tellme been as advanced as Siri, I would never use the onscreen keyboard to text message again.

    • randy williams

      TellMe has been here for a year while Siri is in Beta and the only feature that would make anyone want the iPhone 4S. What happens when it goes downhill or comes out with information leaking??

    • Anonymous

      Siri the only reason to get an 4S? What about the A5?

  • Jayb Online

    so boring! MS need something very techie commercial like these videos:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktA0qWGyT6M 

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6_2xQ2y-p8

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Adls3pOM2RE

    the first 2 commercials are old but still catchie :D

    • Jayb Online

      maybe bcause of  the music. . . 

  • Guest

    Coming from Apple within the next five years. Beta coming from MS circa 2030.

    • Imbrainfever

      trolls attach.. Eat your apple and be happy

    • http://twitter.com/mcakins McAkins Online

      Yeah, you have to give it to these iDrones, they have guts appearing on MS fan-site and spreading hatred. Goto MacRumors or whichever temple you attend and knock yourself out I would say.

    • Alique Williams

      The OP’s sentiment is correct.

      Microsoft takes exceedingly long to turn concepts into reality. Why the hell isn’t the tellme version on WP7 similar to how it was demoed half a year in advanced? Why the hell is it that Apple had to be the company that got it right with Siri (Which is what tellme was suppose to be)?

      I am someone who has never bought, and probably never will, buy anything with an Apple logo on it. But the truth is, Apple has a far faster cycle of innovation than MIcrosoft. It’s time you people stop being apologetic about it.

    • http://www.jeffkibuule.com Jeff Kibuule

      @611c051e62485796c28a1b9366d5915c:disqus Because Apple just bought the technology whereas Microsoft is developing it themselves?

    • Anonymous

      The short term memory of crApple drones is a bit humorous. It’s as if they have to force themselves to block out everything Microsoft has done and exclusively look at niche consumer electronics to make them feel superior. I guess if they were born in the last decade they have a legitimate excuse as to why they are unable to see how far back innovation goes, which is much further than the smartphone era. If you have to come to a MS forum to post your envy anonymously, you have failed at life.

    • http://twitter.com/mcakins McAkins Online

      Tom can we please block Guest accounts, if you’re gonna trol at least have deceny to trol under a name. I hate iDrones!

    • Guest

      Truth hurts, huh?

    • Anonymous

      no, people are annoyed and sometimes disgusted. remember what Jobs said about Gates, does it hurt anyone except for himself? no really, but most people are just annoyed and disgusted, that it.

    • Anonymous

      did you know that when Microsoft saved Apple’s ass in 1999 or 1997, don’t remember, that microsoft thought of Apple as a good testbed for new products… hahahah Microsoft owns Apple… hahahahhahahaha… Just kidding(about owning them).

    • Guest

      It was ’97. Too bad MS didn’t hold the shares until now. They’d be worth about MS’s entire market cap.

  • Edwinenrike4

    The first one took place in 2019, this one tkes in the year 2021 lol

  • Anonymous

    Yet 80% of the comments on the video are vile, hateful and disgusting. I hate Youtube.

    • Alique Williams

      Youtube is just a medium where people exchange ideas. Why did it ever come into fruition that people hate Microsoft so much on the consumer side?

  • Anonymous

    I can see the integrated displays working by 2019-2021, the holographic UI is another 10-15 years off from that.

  • http://www.facebook.com/ben.joynes Ben Joynes

    So much for “Life without Walls”.

    Every wall in the house is a Computer =P

  • Leon

    This is nothing more than just a dream, a reality that will never be able come true… why??

    One word: PATENTS.

    There has never been innovation… only competition. The technology we already have it, but human history tells that we never learned how to share, to work together and for that reason we only dream of the future, never work for it.