Google's Surface Hub competitor launches in May for $5,000

After a few months of waiting, Google has now announced the price point and launch timeframe for the Jamboard, a large 55-inch 4K digital whiteboard designed for businesses. It will go on sale in May for the price of $4,999, plus an annual support fee of $600.

As we reported last fall, the Jamboard is designed specifically to link up and show files that businesses store in their Google Docs, Sheets and Slides accounts on a big screen. It will also be able to add any images stored on a Google Drive account. The Jamboard will have a touchscreen with 16 simultaneous touch points, and will support handwriting and shape recognition. It will also have its own wide-angle camera, speakers and microphones, along with Wi-Fi and Ethernet connections, as well as Google Cast support. Users can look forward to drawing on the Jamboard with the two included fine tip passive stylus, along with an eraser and microfiber cloth.

The Jamboard is going after the business audience that Microsoft has been courting for the past year with its Windows 10-based Surface Hub big touchscreen PCs. However, the Jamboard is much cheaper than the Surface Hub, which begins pricing at $8,999. You can even move the Jamboard around easily from a meeting room to an office to anywhere else in your building with its optional rolling stand.

Along with today’s reveal of Hangouts turning into two focused enterprise tools for meetings, it looks like Google is ready to compete better with Microsoft, which has ruled the business and enterprise space with its Windows platform for decades. We will have to see if Google can truly take some of Microsoft’s market share away in this area.