Courier, We Hardly Knew Ye
By Harry McCracken | Thursday, April 29, 2010 at 2:27 pm
Just what is Microsoft’s Courier project? All we know for sure is that it resulted in a neat concept video, reminiscent of a modern take on Apple’s it-was-a-vision-not-a-product Knowledge Navigator. But I don’t know if anyone outside Microsoft has had a clear handle on whether Courier was an imaginary romantic ideal of a two-screen tablet or something the company was busy building.
And now maybe we never will. Gizmodo, which published the Courier leak in the first place, is reporting that Microsoft has killed Courier. It quotes Microsoft PR honcho Frank Shaw saying that the concept was one of many ideas explored by Microsoft that doesn’t result in a shipping product (at least for now). But it’s still unclear whether Courier ever existed except as a slick piece of animation.
Another question: Did Microsoft let the Courier video out intentionally, or was it a genuine leak? I hope it wasn’t the former: By getting people excited and then failing to result in anything, Courier surely hurts Microsoft’s reputation for creativity (albeit just slightly) rather than helping it…
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April 30th, 2010 at 12:11 am[…] with other news today including the official termination of Microsoft’s “Courier” project, just where does would the cancellation of the HP slate leave Windows when it comes to […]
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May 7th, 2010 at 9:46 am[…] in the demos instantly knocked my socks off. In a way, though, it was more impressive than the much flashier, recently-nixed Courier tablet, which seemed to be Microsoft’s concept of a next-generation Tablet PC. We don’t know […]
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May 10th, 2010 at 1:30 am[…] in the demos instantly knocked my socks off. In a way, though, it was more impressive than the much flashier, recently-nixed Courier tablet, which seemed to be Microsoft’s concept of a next-generation Tablet PC. We don’t know whether […]
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May 25th, 2010 at 5:13 pm[…] has no direct alternative. It has canceled Courier, a product that was at least vaguely analogous to the iPad. And major Microsoft partner HP is now […]
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May 31st, 2010 at 11:44 am[…] Steve Ballmer’s CES keynote was only five months ago, but it’s already something out of an era that feels ancient. He showed off upcoming “Slate PCs,” including a much-hyped HP model which is now mysteriously missing. At the show, a Microsoft executive told me that Microsoft had no plans to customize Windows 7 any further for touch-screen devices. Meanwhile, the Microsoft “Courier” concept tablet which a lot of people loved turned out to be destined for the dustbin of concept PC history. […]
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December 31st, 2010 at 12:36 pm[…] Microsoft decided not to pursue its cool two-screen Courier concept device. […]
April 29th, 2010 at 7:03 pm
Ah the memories….
When the iPad was announced and then again when released, I remember dozens of Apple haters saying that the iPad sucked and they were going to wait until Microsoft delivered the courier. I guess they will be waiting for awhile.
April 29th, 2010 at 7:50 pm
I think MSFT correctly realized the Courier required a re-think. Like, maybe, they need to figure out how to do a real Touch interface without Apple suing their pants off.
April 30th, 2010 at 4:38 am
Courier was just iPad FUD, but it fell flat because business is more focused around iPhone and now iPad than around Windows anymore. I’ve already seen high-level executives replace company-issued XP PC’s with their own iPads and never look back. Microsoft doesn’t have the echo chamber that used to have. Nobody cares anymore. XP was their last product that mattered.
April 30th, 2010 at 5:59 am
Par for the course for Microsoft.
April 30th, 2010 at 6:12 am
The ‘videos’ we saw were no more than concept animations, with the machine seeming to know a tap meant one thing here, and something else there. The interface, in other words, was not even working in the animation.
My best guess here is that the top dogs in Microsoft decided that slates etc. were going under the Zune team from now on, with WinPhone as the OS. The design team for the Courier never was connected in the rumors with the Zune guys, and was sort of a big distraction: we all were jazzed about it, wanted to see one, maybe buy one; but as an ‘incubation’ project only, it drew attention away from any slates that the Zune guys might actually get ODMs to put on the market this November.
The Courier, in other words, wasn’t going to steal much thunder from Apple’s slates, but it might slow adoption of real, selling Microsoft-based slates. That’s why I reckon Microsoft leaked this news now, a couple months before WinPhone 7 is due to be shown in full to partners, for late-2010 devices to ship.
Later on, the concepts behind Courier might be folded into a WinPhone (8, or 9) device.
Personally, I think the foldable, dual-screen device could be quite interesting. Apple’s 1987 ‘Navigator’ concept was a single-screen, foldable pad. And with flexible eink screens on the horizon, such things might yet come to be.