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Microsoft Shrouded The Surface In "Apple Levels Of Secrecy" By Designing It In A Secret Underground Bunker

Microsoft's Surface tablet was a big surprise due in part to the extreme levels of secrecy the company used while developing it.

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Now that the tablet is out in the public, Microsoft pulled back some of the veil and told Mary Branscombe of TechRader details about the development process.

The Surface team worked at what Microsoft's hardware maven called "an underground bunker with no windows."

Microsoft Surface Steve Ballmer
AP

When the team outgrew the bunker, they moved into an aboveground building devoted to the construction of the Surface.

The entrance to that building consisted of two consecutive, "airlock-style" doors. The second one didn't open until the first one was closed, so employees could make sure no one is following them inside.

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Inside these secret layers Microsoft built prototype after prototype until it settled on the Surface.

Microsoft
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