The good folks at Microsoft recently unveiled their vision for a Workplace of the Future, as presented in a series a photos published by CNET. The work was conducted by Tom Gruver, group program manager for Microsoft’s Center for Information Work, and gives a good illustration for what office environments might look like five to ten years down the road.

Looking at these pictures, I get the impression that Microsoft’s best efforts in dreaming the future of our workplace totally miss the mark though. As exciting as hardware can be, the real innovation lies in the combination of hardware, software and services into a total experience that will make end-users more productive. Think Apple, which combines the iPod with the iTunes application and the iTunes music store into the best mobile music experience one can get. Think Apple again, with the MacBook Pro laptop, the iSync synchronization software, and the .Mac online service, which together make for a great setup.

In that respect, big screens, fancy video-conferencing systems and sleek Tablet PCs bring little in terms of connectivity, collaboration and convergence. To me, these three ‘C’ words spell the most fundamental tenets of Office 2.0: a working environment enabled by high connectivity, an emphasis on features that will foster collaboration among knowledge workers, and a dramatic convergence of devices and services into a next-generation computing platform that gets its mojo from Metcalfe’s law rather than Moore’s.

Now, can someone explain who needs a screen above the bed’s headboard?