Microsoft is, at least for now, scrapping its plans for its Courier tablet PC, the dual screened mobile PC and e-book reader it planned to send the iPad up the river with.
A spokesman for Microsoft, Frank Shaw, said that while the Courier did undergo testing, it has no plans to realise the effort at the moment. "It will be evaluated for use in future offerings, but we have no plans to build such a device at this time," he said. Some reckoned that the Courier could have truly been a contender to Apple's iPad, with features such as multi-touch support and a built in camera.
As Mashable speculates here, the reason for the scrapping is actually quite simple: while the Courier would feature touch support, no version of Windows has been designed to offer an experience that would be similar to what the iPad is geared toward.
Microsoft's Frank Shaw hasn't given any details as to why the Courier has been scrapped for now. It had not, before todays announcement, given public details of plans for its device - all we knew to date had been based on leaked prototype images and an Engadget leak which we reported on here.
The news will be a kick to those looking forward to a tablet PC not released by the Apple overlords. Leaked details had generally received positive fanfare from the online geeky community.
This thing was a great concept, but it was never anything more than a concept.
This was no different to the traditional Microsoft tactic of announcing or leaking something similar to a competitor's offering, only to pull the plug after sales of the competitor's product have stalled as a result.
The only difference this time round was sales of the iPad didn't stall, so there was little point in keeping the Courier concept alive.
Most every Ballmer *assertion/announcement* goes south after giving a leg up to the price of stock.
Meanwhile the real cost of pints and pasties is through the roof!
It's time we all let go kite a fly!