I first saw a Surface Computer at the Sheraton in Seattle and thought it was pretty cool, but not necessarily something that I think will be widely used. However there are places where it makes sense and I think this use by BMW is a good one.

Surface is flashy and it does allow you to show things off well. The mapping feature with Virtual Earth is pretty cool and it can be fun to quickly and easily flip around. I enjoyed showing a few friends the ranch and the view from Virtual Earth shows it well.

But I wasn't sure how much more than a toy it is. There are some good applications, like allowing people to quickly get kiosk like information, and perhaps this use as a sales tool, but beyond that how useful is it?

I'm not sure. I'm looking forward to seeing if anyone comes up with some good and interesting uses of this technology.