Tags: microsoft apple tablet

Right at the moment I feel like the kid in the tale about the Emperor and his New Clothes. Why...? Because of the Microsoft Courier. This has been much talked about in the blogosphere ever since it arrived back in late September. And some more details have come out, and Engadget has dutifully told us about them. And very predictably the blogosphere has gone into hyper-drive telling everyone how wonderful this.

Except there's a problem. Like the Emperor's Clothers, it doesn't actually exist.

The Courier exists as a concept, but there it ends. Wikipedia tells us that Microsoft considers 'as in "incubation", which is further along than a "research" project but is not yet in the commercial pipeline'. Now that quote is from here, and that's back in November. There's been no further word from Microsoft about the project's status and whether it has a launch date. However Engadget has plucked a date fro the sky and told us Q3 2010.

Unlikely...! Microsoft is yet to ship their Windows Phones 7 operating system on a Mobile Phone. And they have promised it for the Courier. (Well, actually they haven't its just Engadget and the other Bloggers telling us that.) They have to develop that, customise it for dual screens and test it all by Q3. That's six months away.

I feel one the most telling reasons that this is vapourware is this. If you watch the second video, and go to 1.43.

There's this image:

That's a nice image of a Spreadsheet. I wonder where they got it from...? Compare it with this Numbers.app (from Apple's iWork Office suite):

Carefully look at the spacing of the values in the Spreadsheet and compare with the above. There's been some Justification going on but it looks like its been ripped straight out of one of iWork's templates...!

Now, would this have happened if this was a demo of the software on a functioning device..? No. Would this have happened if the device had finalised software...? No. Its still an internal demo, probably still being touted around inside Microsoft. Will there be a shipping product in September...? No...! Not if they are still hawking mock-ups around Microsoft.

The Apple iPad has long been anticipated. But Microsoft has been caught napping and has had to come up with something. It's tried before with Tablet devices and they have always failed. So to counter the threat they have come up with the Courier. But the problem is that the Courier is only a half-baked research at least 18 months away from completion.

I wonder when the Pundits will catch on. Will they ever admit it doesn't exist...?