MacDailyNews Take: Hey, where’s Jason? 
Johnson continues, “We’re told that on Wednesday, Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer Microsoft execs informed the internal team that had been working on the tablet device that the project would no longer be supported. We contacted Microsoft, who confirmed that Courier will not go into production. Microsoft Corporate VP of Communications Frank Shaw told us: At any given time, we’re looking at new ideas, investigating, testing, incubating them. It’s in our DNA to develop new form factors and natural user interfaces to foster productivity and creativity. The Courier project is an example of this type of effort. It will be evaluated for use in future offerings, but we have no plans to build such a device at this time.“
Johnson laments, “It is a pity. Courier was one of the most innovative concepts out of Redmond in quite some time.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Joel, buddy, the thing never existed. Repeat after us: “It… was… vaporware.” Sheesh.
Microsoft’s concocted imagery failed to freeze the market, so the “project” is now “cancelled.”
Here’s what we wrote when “Courier” first condensed onto Gizmodo back in September:
What’s astonishing about it? That it looks to be 1990’s thick, that it’s stuck running some version of Windows, that it’s vaporous computer graphics with a cartoon demo, or all three? It’s not a “booklet,” it’s a “vaporlet.” So, why is this “astounding” CG imagery being emitted right now? Are Microsoft worried that a real device is coming soon from another company? And, careful, Gizmodo: Besides having been PlayedForSure, Multi-Touch™ is a trademark of Apple Inc. – MacDailyNews Take, September 23, 2009
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I am now painfully reminded about why I buy Apple products in the consumer space:
Apple: Innovate and Execute.
Microsoft: Overpromise and Underdeliver. Then Copy the leader.
“we’re looking at new ideas, investigating, testing, incubating them. It’s in our DNA to develop new form factors and natural user interfaces to foster productivity and creativity. The Courier project is an example of this type of effort. It will be evaluated for use in future offerings, but we have no plans to build such a device at this time.”
TRANSLATION;
We took one look at Apple’s iPad and said, “We’re screwed. What’s the next big thing from Apple. Let’s work on that instead. Anybody know what it is?”
“we’re looking at new ideas, investigating, testing, incubating them”
I didn’t know monkeys could incubate their eggs?
Apple hating tech blog commenters react to the news that the iPad destroying ‘Courier’ has been cancelled:
Tee hee! This makes me giggles.
Au revior! POOF! POOF! POOF! Bwahaha!
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Here’s what I wrote as a comment about courier over at roughlydrafted on March 5th…
This [Courier] is another example of MS announcing a vaporous future product to try to keep people from buying a competitors product NOW. Really, nothing to see here… this will never ship, or will ship and be unrecognizable next to the concept vids they are throwing around.
Remember this Longhorn video? It was going to ship in 2003 and blow everybody away… We’re still waiting.
(Skip to about 1:03 to see the amazing things that MS was going to deliver any minute now, in 2003!)
So yeah, Courier. Nothing to see here. Can’t wait for my iPad.
====
iPad is great. Courier doesn’t exist. Geeks on Giz and Engadget throw tantrums. And so on.
I’m trying to keep score …
iPads sold since April 3rd – over 1,000,000
iPad killers that were killed in the last two days – 2
@Ricky Badger
“So that’s the MS take on cloud computing then… first you see, then you don’t! Doesn’t fill me with confidence.”
Vapor computing is a step beyond cloud computing, no hardware or software needed; just a vivid imagination.
Patrick Fitzgerald
“Personally, I LOVE the line:
“Courier is a real device, and we’ve heard that it’s in the “late prototype” stage of development.”
They are into prototypes and questionable transactions.
“Another one Bites the Dust”
“It’s in our DNA to develop new form factors and natural user interfaces to foster productivity and creativity.”….
In his defense, I still have my Word and Excel 1.0 discs for my Mac Plus; they were pretty good apps back then… along with Illustrator and Pagemaker, I was set! That was when Adobe was viable (and Aldus)
Anonymous©
“we’re looking at new ideas, investigating, testing, incubating them”
I didn’t know monkeys could incubate their eggs?
Of course they do. How else would monkeys hatch?
I heard the Microsoft engineer left it on a bar stool in a Redmond bar after celebrating his birthday, and some thief came in and stole the bar stool. Gizmodo have an article up about the bar stool.
I wish the frickin’ Zune would go ‘Poof!’ already. Who at Microsoft takes that thing to bed every night?
The Courier is dead? Oh, poor fella. He probably got hit by some very sharp shards of HP’s Slate.
I’m an Apple guy, but use Windows 7 on my little Acer ultraportable. It’s fine for getting things done on a laptop — but you can’t just bolt on some basic touch and expect it to work in a tablet.
iPhone OS has been designed from the ground up to work on mobile devices using touch, NOT a keyboard and mouse.
Looks like HP has realized this. Finally.
This is going to give Apple a good year to really improve the iPad (come on, Pages but no easy way to print? That has to change).
Nothing but a PR fraud. Announce a futuristic product with photos, making it look as if it exists. Get all the press PR. Everybody hears about it.
Then later quietly disown it…. Barely anybody hears about it.
What remains in the memory of the average Windows slave. M$ is on top of future tech.
The truth be told, the Potemkin Village that “was” the Courier looked terrific. (They always DO, don’t they?.) But the real-world truth is that its basic design, that of a two-page, open-up, book-like device, was dead from the very beginning.
Why? Simple, really, especially if you observe the way most people, young and old, treat paper-based volumes: That hinge right down the middle of the device is doom-on-a-stick. That is, the Courier’s supposed strength was its ultimate weakness. There’s no way that physical junction could withstand the constant opening, closing, twisting, and torquing most people would put it through over time. Hence, the advent of Apple’s finger-driven tablet: No moving parts. No pens to lose. No hinges to break. Simple. Basic. Solid. Incomparable.
The Courier, as presented, had absolutely no chance to reach the market. It’s just another smoke-and-mirrors, pie-in-the-sky effort from the “think tank” in Redmond.
More blood on Apple’s iPad.
Holy crap, this made me gag: “It’s in our DNA to develop new form factors and natural user interfaces to foster productivity and creativity. ” Did this guy not listen when his mother told him never to lie?
The handwriting recognition on the Courier would have been a royal pain.
Even the vague name “Courier” made no sense. Why name it after a font? The iPad and iPhone names indicated what the gadget does.
As much as I prefer Apple products to anything Wintel I’m sorry to see the Microsoft Courier vanish. Admittedly I still would have purchased an iPad rather than the Courier but the video of the Courier displayed certain ideas that I found attractive.
Then again I’m sure the iPad will deliver uses, together with apps from the App Store, that will have answers to those ideas.