Microsoft’s Courier takes some of the wind out of the iPad’s delivery announcement

Friday was a very interesting day because of Microsoft Courier Tablet leak that occurred simultaneously with Apple’s announcement of the iPad’s release date. There has been a lot of hype surrounding iPad and how it is going to be super hit for Apple like the iPhone and iPod products have been for them. But if even half of what the new video that is being presented by engadget is true, this product blows the socks off of the iPad as a useful Professional’s tool.

endgadget’s article describes this device as:

“We're told Courier will function as a "digital journal," and it's designed to be seriously portable: it's under an inch thick, weighs a little over a pound, and isn't much bigger than a 5x7 photo when closed. That's a lot smaller than we expected -- this new picture really puts it into perspective -- and the internals apparently reflect that emphasis on mobility: rather than Windows 7, we're told the Courier is built on Tegra 2 and runs on the same OS as the Zune HD, Pink, and Windows Mobile 7 Series, which we're taking to mean Windows CE 6.”

“… the interface appears to be pen-based and centered around drawing and writing, with built-in handwriting recognition and a corresponding web site that allows access to everything entered into the device in a blog-like format complete with comments.”

“,,,there will be a built-in camera, and there's a headphone jack for media playback. Most interestingly, it looks like the Courier will also serve as Microsoft's e-book device, with a dedicated ecosystem centered around reading.”

The ‘Digital Journal’ Tablet term is a perfect description of the proposed Microsoft Courier Tablet device. Seldom does my partner get so excited about a device but this one Jude said to me that he “would buy this in minute when it becomes available.” This device was initially introduced as a future device last December and has been hinted about at different Microsoft announcement events. With the release of this new video we get a better sense of the capabilities of the device and how it will fit into a busy professional’s lifestyle. So what is so special about it?

The first thing you notice is its dual screen display. This doubles your workspace and the ability to interact between applications and information. When reading a book the experience will be more “book like”. The device is designed around the concept of being used as a journal. It will allow you to compile information from different sources onto pages that can be shared with other members of your team. It will allow you to take pictures with the built-in camera and include those images in your journal pages. The concept of journals is very interesting because you can use it to separate different projects so that you can publish them as separate entities to the group you need to share them with. If you use OneNote or EverNote compare this to the notebook theme in these applications.

I do have some questions about this product that the answers will be very interesting to know. First is battery life. To make this truly useful it will need to be at least 10 hours of continuous use but even longer would be beneficial. Storage is another consideration. If it has an SD card slot, or a USB port that you can plug a USB Flash Drive into, then you have a method of giving yourself unlimited storage and an easy way to back up your data. Either way, this would be truly useful to have available and would give you almost unlimited storage. Another thought would be that it would be highly integrated into a cloud based site, for storage, sharing information and application access. With so much emphasis being placed on web based applications, it makes sense that it will have a tight integration with cloud based applications.

In reading all the information that is coming out about this proposed product, I felt that everything that I wanted out this type of device was being answered. One of my major complaints with the iPad is its lack of a stylus. Granted, Apple’s focus with their device is primarily entertainment Microsoft’s focus is on productivity. The stylus is important in this function. It looks like there will handwriting recognition built-in so the need for a keyboard will be minimal but if you were to turn the unit on its side the one screen could be turned into a keyboard with the second screen being the word processing page. Of course there is no hint of a keyboard so this is all speculation. Being that the unit is only 5x7 this keyboard would be very small indeed.

I made a mockup of what a 5x7 device would look like and I found a couple of things out. First, it is small enough to be easily transportable. It is light. And, for us guys that don’t want to have to start carrying a Man Purse around, it fits easily in the front pocket of my khakis. When you fold it open, you have two of these surfaces to work with. The central area between the screens is used as a docking area that holds information like a visual clipboard, so that you can easily move information and images between applications. Cutting and pasting is done very easily with a combination of both stylus and fingers. Flipping pages is very intuitive using your finger to scroll either horizontally or vertically through the user interface and the different applications. All in all, it blows the iPad out of the water with a much more useful device to the professional worker whether they are a salesperson, designer, serviceman, physician, lawyer or anyone that is an Information Worker.

So, if you can’t tell, I’ll spell it out. I’m very excited about this device concept and hope that the proposed release of it for the Q3/Q4 timeframe is true. This is one of the few new products that I would get in a long line for. I just wish that its release was sooner that what is being proposed. So the question arises, do I go out and get an iPad when it becomes available next month, or do I hold out for the Microsoft Courier. I don’t think that it is that hard of a decision, I really didn’t want the first generation iPad anyway, too many limitations. So if the Microsoft Courier does become a real, available device later this year, I think that in the long run I will much happier with it than the iPad. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens!

Original September leaked video, which was pretty cool in its own right:

New Video released to engadget this past week: