Surface enables direct interaction minus a keyboard or mouse and supports "massive" multi-touch, with dozens of objects able to be placed on the screen. Collaboration is enabled via a horizontal form factor. Object recognition is another key feature.

Surface hardware has been in use at a Harrah's hotel in a social interaction application and at AT&T in some retail stores, with prospective phone buyers able to identify phone coverage areas via the device, Carpenter said. They also can compare phones through the application. The Sheraton hotel chain also has used Surface as well as MSNBC's political coverage unit.

Surface is expected to be an interesting story at PDC, one analyst said.

"With respect to the Surface -- in some ways it's like a 30 inch iPhone," said Jeffrey Hammond, senior analyst at Forrester. "The multi-touch input is intuitive and really nice. But the surface goes beyond the iPhone in the number of inputs -- 50 simultaneous in all. And the object recognition capabilities are also unique, with the exception of some pretty expensive custom devices."

"What the iPhone, the Surface, and Windows 7 all have in common is that they are the vanguard of the next major wave of human/technology interaction," Hammond said.