Microsoft has dropped plans to build the much hipped Courier tablet. The dual-screen device, first uncovered by Gizmodo last year, was one of the more intriging ideas to come from the company in the past decade.
Wednesday, source close to Gizmodo told the tech blog Microsoft executives informed the team that had been working on the tablet device that the project would no longer be supported.
Although the Courier was never officially anounced or recognized by Microsoft, after being contacted by Gizmodo, their VP of communications Frank Shaw had this to say:
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.
Perhaps Microsoft is surrendering the tablet market to Apple after the strong launch of the iPad. After the oh-so-awkward Bill Gates interview we talked about last week, one wonders if Microsoft isn’t throwing in the towel on the renewed tablet market rather than entering a playing field it knows it simply can’t compete on.
