The feature includes a number of details not previously public, including the scale of the Courier project. This was no minor research project or futuristic video production: more than people were working on the project, and although the Courier team was far from producing final software or hardware, it had designed Samsung-built prototypes to allow people to get a feel for the Courier experience.
Heading the Courier team was J Allard, the man who made Microsoft realize the importance of the Internet, later to become one of the key figures in the Xbox project. His plan was to make Windows into a genuine tablet operating system. Faced with these conflicting goals, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer called on Bill Gates to help make the decision: should Microsoft push the radical, different Courier or should it evolve the Windows platform?
Gates talked to the Courier crew and made the decision: Courier was cancelled, its team broken up, and Windows 8 represents Microsoft's future in the tablet market.
Gates' decision apparently hinged on e-mail. Allard told Gates that Courier had no e-mail—that users could use their smartphones or PCs to fetch mail if they wanted it. The Courier was for content creation—where "content" meant sketching and writing, not e-mailing.
CNET rationalizes Gates' response by explaining that Microsoft makes billions from Exchange, and so a product with no e-mail is a problem—a machine that doesn't do e-mail isn't going to help shift Exchange licenses.
If the decision was purely to protect Windows and Office, it's easy to feel that it was all a bit unfair. A complementary content-creation device wouldn't really have to protect Windows and Office, it would just have to work alongside them, and it could still carve out a niche for itself. But perhaps the logic goes deeper than that. The decision to not include e-mail was always dubious, just because e-mail is how many people share content.
A content-creation device that can't send and receive content by e-mail is a very peculiar thing indeed, as it's cut off from the rest of the world. But it might have been forgiveable if the answer had been "someone can create an application for that. It's still a bad decision, as the BlackBerry PlayBook has demonstrated, but a problem that could be solved.
Courier would be just one part of a broader ecosystem. It would be a platform. But with an answer of "no, you've got to use something else," it isn't a platform: it's a fixed function appliance, one that can do only exactly what Microsoft programmed into it. No more, no less. Gizmodo had initially revealed the Courier as a project that Microsoft has been working on. The tablet was said to have two screen, fold like a book and include a touchscreen display and a stylus.
But the Courier never made it outside the pages of the blog. But now, a new generation of attractively designed and low-priced screens are looking to lure in consumers. In fact, it makes sense for Microsoft to continue to trim away splinter versions of its core operating systems and focus on Windows 7 and Windows Phone 7 unity across all its devices. Hopefully some of the smart thinking we have seen in Courier will find its way into Microsoft's tablets, whether they're powered by Windows 7 or Windows Phone 7.
If we hear anything more, we'll let you know. As always, feel free to contact me if you have additional details. Courier would have done so much, with a market larger than just tablets. Business users would be able to have a device that replaces their organizers and enable them to collaborate easier than using a blackberry or tablet. Hey Ballmer, this project would give microsoft another screen to dominate. And, it will put apple into a very small corner.
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