Because the Surface Hub is an integrated device, there are savings in: * purchase research - deciding what parts to buy and making sure they'll all work out of

Because the Surface Hub is an integrated device, there are savings in: * purchase research - deciding what parts to buy and making sure they'll all work out of the box and that the computer is fast enough to support what people will be doing with it * physical setup - hooking up those external PCs and peripherals and making sure they are all working like an appliance so that you don't need an IT person "turn it on" for the salesperson before every meeting, etc. * support - if something goes wrong, you're talking to Microsoft, without figuring out which part is broken and then figuring out who to call Considering a decent 1080p 55" touch display is probably going to run you around $3K (and it doesn't have active pen support), I'm not sure $9K is that unreasonable for a business, especially if it stays in operation for five years or more. -- edit: i realized the parent was responding to the to car showrooms comment and not boardrooms after the fact - but left the post here for the context of boardrooms