Microsoft Surface 2 Launches Real Innovation in Keyboard Covers

As Microsoft launches its next generation of Surface tablets with modest hardware improvements in battery life, cameras, CPU, and kickstand performance (Being able to crank the kickstand to 2 angles is a big win? Really? How about multiple angles, hmm?), the most-improved kit coming out seems to be a family of new keyboard covers.   It's a shame Microsoft won't build versions for Android and Apple tablets, because it could move some product if it tinkered with its baseline designs just a bit.

The $119 second generation Touch Cover 2 is about a third thinner than its predecessor and is more rigid for easier typing. It includes an array of sensors across the surface rather than a single sensor per key, so partial keystrokes can be picked up more easily and accuracy. 

Some gestures are supported with the multi-sensor design, but there's a lot of potential for customization, either via software and/or simply printing new covers. At the product introduction, Microsoft announced the Surface Remix Project, a set of DJ controls "built" into a touch cover enabling it to be used to mix music on-the-fly. Controls include a 16 large square keypad, three volume sliders, and controls to play, pose, and mute songs and tracks. 


image via digitaltrends.com

Other concepts dreamt up by design students included full piano keyboard, but if Microsoft OEMes the Touch Cover 2 with a developer's kit, you can imagine the possibilities for building customized touch-keyboard packages for vertical markets and individual customization possibilities for VARs. For kiosk applications, you can put the easily smudged/scratched Surface 2/Surface Pro 2 tablet screen under a protective cover and use a customized Touch Cover 2 exposed to get dirty fingered.   I can see hackers going to town with Touch Cover 2 for different apps.

A second generation Type Cover with a real keyboard is thinner while Microsoft has added a slightly thicker "Power Cover" with a supplemental battery to add 50 percent more operating life and/or charging the Surface 2/Pro/Pro 2 when not in use.  

Imagine if Microsoft decided to make to make OEM Touch Cover 2 available for Android and Apple tablets. The Touch Cover 2 is designed to be Bluetooth enabled with a $60 adapter -- something that strikes me as a bit of an Apple-style gouge moment; I guess Microsoft will wait to the third generation to integrate Bluetooth into its covers.   Still, the Touch Cover 2 hardware is already being customized for Surface applications, so extending that functionality to Android and Apple tablets in short order might be better than letting someone clone the device.