Two more notes from my Surface launch experience.

First, Microsoft’s marketing team was working the line interviewing people and happened to talk to the guy behind me (I sure wasn’t making eye contact with them). They asked him if he had an Xbox and he said he did but he never used it.

“Oh, you will now because of SmartGlass,” they assured him. “You are going to love this.”

By their tone I thought I was missing some huge feature. I had heard the SmartGlass name but couldn’t remember what it was so I asked the Microsoft employee in line in front of me. He said “Oh, it’s Microsoft’s response to AirPlay.”

So, as of today, Microsoft has an answer to AirPlay, née AirTunes in 2004.

Second, the big give-away for the first 100 people buying a Surface was a free year on Microsoft’s subscription music service, a $100 “value”. A few people back from me a guy said he wasn’t particularly interested in that as he had already been screwed by subscribing to two Microsoft music services that the company had canceled, leaving him with no music and no playlists, and now he just bought MP3s from Amazon.

“Now I know I’ll always have my music because I own it.”

Lost decade indeed.