Image: Monash University/supplied-ish
Monash University and Microsoft have partnered up to create a new student space within their Clayton campus, called “The Tech Lounge” (yes, it is really a tacky name) that is like the Microsoft Stores, except without the retail component and just unashamedly promotes many Microsoft products.
The new Tech Lounge, which opens today (but the rest of the student body won’t be back until next week), will feature two Xbox 360 gaming consoles, a PixelSense table (which was known as the Surface before, well, the tablet came out), three desktop computers and 17 different laptops from different manufacturers.
There will also be five Windows Phones connected so you can “check out the technology and have a play with the Microsoft phone interface” – that’s according to the Tech Lounge page on the Monash University’s intranet page.
What I’m gathering is that Monash and Microsoft are attempting to collide their ideas together – Monash needing to do something with this space, and Microsoft needing a way to market their upcoming Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 phones to young people because they are already being taken away by Android and Apple.
Microsoft plans to expand this idea to more universities – with the University of Sydney, Adelaide Univeristy and Curtin University in Perth named in a message to all students announcing the launch of The Tech Lounge.
CORRECTION (26 July): we’ve been alerted that University of Sydney has had theirs since the beginning of the year.
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- Image: Monash University/supplied-ish
Disclosure: Terence Huynh is a student of Monash University. He was not paid by either Monash University or Microsoft to write a blog post regarding the Tech Lounge. In fact, he’s pretty sure that Monash University doesn’t know that Terence Huynh writes this technology blog. The images come from Monash University, sourced from their intranet page.