Microsoft’s Courier tablet gets cancelled
Almost a year ago, the gadget scene started buzzing when Microsoft revealed it’s plans to build a dual screen tablet codenamed Courier. Both the device and its operating system looked great, with a revolutionary feel and a people starting talking about a device that will finally teach Apple a lesson.
Unfortunately today, Frank Shaw, Microsoft’s Vice President of Communications confirmed to the journalists working for the gadget blog Gizmodo that the Courier project has been cancelled. According to the company’s source, the project was similar to Microsoft’s dozen of other research programs, investigating new design ideas and user interfaces, programs that remain in the realm of concepts. The results of these projects will be used by the company in the future, in new offerings.
Some voices say that after the release of Apple’s iPad many, both large and small companies, were going to hit the tablet market with a huge wave of devices. Microsoft chose to stay out of this game that will soon start to be very crowded.
The Courier, in its prototype form, was a dual screen tablet, with multi touch 7 inch displays.
The tablet was meant to be used for writing, designing or drawing, with both the fingers or a special stylus. Similar to Microsoft’s new design ideas, visible in the Zune HD player, the Courier had a very minimalist design, with only a Home button. A camera was also built on the back of the case, and another special feature would have been the charging via inductive pads.
Maybe, because it never really did work. Why would someone cancel something that had such a real nice demo. So nice, it could have weathered the iPad. Perhaps, it was canceled due to the same problems that plagued Longhorn, it never really worked.
Great decision by Microsoft. The Tablet game is really getting crowded and before they straighten up the deals with publishers I think everyone should take a step back. Kindle now has Facebook. iPad added new features. Sony is on with its reader. All companies have elaborated on their products and prototypes yet there is no solid deal for the main thing “the content”. Try to search for academic books and you will not find every single book required by your educational institution, be it a middle school, high school or college. The second issue is how fast can manufacturers fix these readers if something happens any of them during a semester? Does the student fail? How long will a student stay without his books? A computer takes at least 2 weeks to get fixed and shipped back to the consumer. How long would it take to fix these readers? 2 weeks is a long time and in 2 weeks a student might as well drop his semester if he or she cannot access their material. I think much more effort should be put in researching and maintaining these readers.
It seems obvious Microsoft is putting on a media ploy to convince the majority that they’re out of the tablet game. It seems like it’s working. Lol.