Saturday, June 2, 2007

Death of the Waitress?

The new Microsoft Surface "table" is quite innovative, at least in presentation. Ive seen things like this before, but Surface seems to be taking it out of the conception stage to the implementation stage.

Surface basically is a touch responsive computer screen on a tabletop. Click here to read about it.

The most prominent thing that comes to mind is the death of the waitress. I figure at least half of all waitressing jobs will disappear within a few years from today. And no more lines at fast food joints. Given that minimum wage (using the Canadian version)
comes to Cdn$1300+ per worker per month... getting a few computer touch screens will be a bargain for the proprietor - even if they were a $2000 a pop (currently projected to sell for $5000-10,000 each, but Im sure the price will drop in a few years).

You order from your table. And get a beep or something when its ready. And finally pay direct from your table via credit/debit card or special refillable "McCards".

No comments: