

Microsoft about to unveil their own tablet - Keyframe
http://www.pcworld.com/article/186028/microsoft_tablet_to_beat_apple_to_the_punch.html/

======
jacquesm
Microsoft is a software company. They've lost big $ on any hardware product
they've ever shipped except for mice and keyboards, and without exception all
of them were 'me too' products.

All this is is a very transparent attempt at undercutting their competition,
if the zune was any indication of how well they'll stack up then Apple has
(unfortunately) very little to worry about.

What is much more interesting here is if there really is a market for these
devices as large as is being predicted.

~~~
msluyter
Isn't the XBox a successful Microsoft hardware product? I think it actually
turned a profit in '08ish.

~~~
jacquesm
It is still a net loss and will continue to be so for at least several years.

------
joubert
If this is true, I wonder what kind of software would run on this thing.

Methinks CocoaTouch is a very nice framework to build apps that suit the
hardware, but still allow incredible creativity.

If the Courier allows any ol' WPF/.NET app to execute, I can see the intended
users being quite confused. OTOH, there are some interesting interaction flows
in WPF (e.g. back/fwd nav) which, like CocoaTouch, could form the basis for
consistent app behavior.

I wonder about the dual screen thing. It could be cool (two screens can yield
a nice dual visual context), but I wonder about things like launching an app -
which screen would it land on? can you move it from one to the other? can it
span both screens?

If all the speculation around iSlate and Courier come to fruition, Jan 2010 is
looking to be quite an exciting month.

------
rbanffy
It's Windows for Pen Computing versus Newton all over again.

With one important difference: Windows for Pen Computing was a real shipping
product (although a laughably bad one) and this is 100% pure fantasy.

~~~
raganwald
May I suggest there are other interesting differences:

First, neither company had successfully shipped anything like PDA software at
that point. Today, Microsoft is has experience with their Tablet version of
Windows and and Apple has experience with their wildly successful Touch/iPhone
platform.

Second, it was enough for Microsoft to sow enough FUD to destroy the PDA
market back then, they were still growing the desktop and notebook markets
that they dominated. So their attitude to alternative markets was that if they
couldn't dominate it, they should destroy it.

Today, they desperately need new markets to grow. Playing defense by
destroying potential markets like tablets through FUD is not going to rekindle
their stock growth. They need to develop new monopolies. So they need to win,
not just produce a stalemate.

~~~
rbanffy
"Today, they desperately need new markets to grow. Playing defense by
destroying potential markets like tablets through FUD is not going to rekindle
their stock growth"

Unless there is a credible threat of someone else dominating that market. Then
it's "dominate or destroy".

The tablet space looks a lot like what Apple encountered with the MP3 player
market when they launched the iPod: several products, all of them sucking
really bad. I say there is a huge threat of an Apple future in that area.

------
sid-
Link with product video - [http://gizmodo.com/5365299/courier-first-details-
of-microsof...](http://gizmodo.com/5365299/courier-first-details-of-
microsofts-secret-tablet)

------
wendroid
I hope they paint the reverse with black chalkboard paint cos you're gonna
need it, the "black slate of death" coming to someone with more money than
sense near you.

EDIT: I knew I would pay in karma :>

