Microsoft’s Future Vision is Amazing
Update: Unfortunately, the Silverlight Streaming service which I use for my videos seem to be temporarily down. In the mean time, please make do with this to watch the videos.
Update 2: The Silverlight Streaming service seems to be back up already. (cross fingers)
Update 3: OK, so the Silverlight Streaming service has been discontinued. I replaced all the embedded videos with their YouTube equivalents. The quality may not be as good as the original Silverlight HD videos, but they’ll do. 
I have been sitting on these videos for a while already.
However, now that it’s been made public and everyone seems to be talking about it in the blogosphere and on Twitter, I guess I can also talk about it now.
Ladies and gentlemen, here it is for your viewing convenience, the full set of high-quality, unedited Microsoft Future Vision videos from 2004 to 2009 all gathered in one place.
We will start with the latest and coolest video, Microsoft’s Productivity Vision and work our way backwards in time. And make sure you watch the videos in full screen mode for the best effect!
You will need Silverlight installed to watch the videos. If you don’t have it installed, you can get it here. Trust me. It’ll be worth your time.
Microsoft’s Productivity Vision (2009)
Microsoft’s Healthcare Vision (2007)
Microsoft’s Manufacturing Vision (2006)
Microsoft’s Banking Vision (2005)
Microsoft’s Retail Vision (2004)
A Glimpse into the Future: Microsoft’s Future Vision Montage
The Future Awaits
Alluring, isn’t it?
The best thing about the future is that no one can really be sure what it’s going to be like. All Microsoft can do is try to project a future which can reasonably be achieved based on where Microsoft thinks technology will take us ten years from now.
And the key word here is “reasonable”. All the ideas and concepts seen on the videos are not science fiction, but something that real people today (whether in Microsoft or elsewhere) are researching on right now.
In early 90′s, didn’t folks predict a new way of user interaction with computers in the future – not with mice and keyboards – but using human touch and optical feedback? Well, a decade later, Microsoft made it a reality.
So what do you think?
Is this the kind of future you would like to live in 10 years from now? Or do you think this vision is doomed to fail?
Lastly, some technical details…
The videos above are hosted on Microsoft’s Silverlight Streaming service. It’s a free video and application hosting service which gives you 10 GB of storage space and up to 5 TB of bandwidth per month to stream your videos via a Silverlight video player.
You can either use the built-in video player from the Silverlight Streaming service, or pick from a variety of free alternatives, such as the sophisticated open source Silverlight 2 video player or the Silverlight Open Video Player.
In the end, I settled for the nifty MinoPlayer, which is both small (only 60KB footprint) and feature-rich.
