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Microsoft's Courier Fails to Deliver at Keynote, Apple Rejoices

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In a much hyped keynote address at CES, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made no mention of the fabled Courier, the tablet computer that would rival the as yet unannounced Apple tablet. Did Microsoft just miss the boat, or is the world not yet ready for fantastic concepts of slate computing?

Rumors have been swirling about "the next big thing" in the computer industry, and while eReaders are nice and 3D tech amusing, most people were expecting big things to come out of tablet, or slate, computing in 2010. Much of this buzz was generated by the oft repeated rumors of an Apple tablet, which is expected to be announced later this month. A lot of the rest of it belonged to Microsoft, though at first the world wasn't sure what Redmond's answer to the iSlate (or whatever it gets called) would be.

Then the world got a sniff of Courier.

In September 2009, Gizmodo managed a sneak peak of a revolutionary looking Microsoft tablet project named Courier. One of the most impressive things about it was that it in no way seemed to be a cheap knock off of Apple, like some kind of ripped off iPhone clone with a few MS tweaks. By all appearances, Microsoft had heard of Apple's rumors, figured they would knock the pants off the world with their simplicity, and said, "we can do better, and we'll do it out way."

Courier Tablet

Just take a look (click to enlarge). By Apple standards, absolutely cluttered. But what a cool idea! A real dual screened multitouch "booklet" that you can interact with with fingers or stylus. Items can be sent from side to side, there's a camera, and there is just one "home" button (so maybe the right part of it is simple after all). THe masses got a look at this on Giz, drooled, and waited for the official announcement. Most people saw it coming yesterday, during Steve Ballmer's keynote at CES 2010, particularly in light of the expected Apple announcement later this month. How better to take the legs out from under Apple's tablet by releasing their own unique and totally awesome tablet first? Made sense to me.

But it was not to be. During the keynote, Ballmer did indeed refer to a touchscreen. In fact, he referred to three of them. One was from HP (which had been rumored to be in collaboration on Courier) which was running Amazon Kindle software, emphasizing that it can be an eReader. Another from Archos was running a movie (multimedia) and the third was a larger one from Pegatron, the fact it's well suited for reading magazines and newspapers taking a backseat to having a cool name. Nothing earth shattering here. Nothing earth shaking for that matter, or even earth nudging. Just technology humming along in ways you were perfectly ready to expect it to. The computers looked like netbooks sans keyboards and plus touch capabilities, and Ballmer spent about 180 seconds demoing them.

The Apple tablet has been the subject of even more rumors than Microsoft's. Will it be paired with an amazing new music service? Will it have a 3D interface? Will it achieve record thinness by combining LCD and touchscreen tech into one package? Will it blow our minds in ways we can't even conceive of, because that's what we expect of Apple now?

Maybe. Who knows? All we know now is that it wouldn't have to do much to upstage the tablet portion of Microsoft's announcement. Courier might not be dead, but Microsoft sure took the wind out of its own sails by failing to so much as mention it at CES. Microsoft-philes can hope this means they are planning to wallop us with an absurdly polished version later that simply isn't quite ready yet.

Or is it the market that isn't quite ready yet? Are tablets actually the next big thing? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Check out the full keynote here.

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