

The inside story of how Microsoft killed its Courier tablet (Part 1) - desigooner
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-20128013-75/the-inside-story-of-how-microsoft-killed-its-courier-tablet

======
brudgers
This is one of those stories in which the facts are construed to fit the
conventional wisdom regarding Microsoft, e.g. no mention of WP7 which was
announced and previewed in the quarter immediately prior to the Courier's
cancellation, no mention of the investment Microsoft made in development of
the Metro interface, and of course no mention of the manufacturing costs
inherent in a dual screen device or the energy such a device would consume
with mainstream technology.

Instead, there is the criticism that Microsoft is not enough like Apple (and a
focus on personalities).

When manufacturers don't see a way to build and sell dual screen tablets at a
profit, Microsoft won't sell much of the software to run them. It is not as if
Microsoft doesn't have the enough experience as a hardware provider to
evaluate the economics of going it alone versus partnering with the
electronics industry. And partnering with the electronics industry rather than
competing as a manufacturer has - with the exception of the XBOX in a market
dominated by proprietary hardware - been a highly successful course.

Finally, it is not as if the design decisions underlying the courier are dead
- a viable dual screen tablet is still as plausible today as it was when the
iPad started shipping and there is no reason such a device could not run with
a Metro interface or that the technology developed as part of the Courier
project could not be incorporated.

What was killed was a project which required forking the Windows roadmap in
ways analogous to past Microsoft decisions and which led to Windows Mobile
becoming a dead end overnight - never mind that a mobile device without email
probably would have been stillborn.

~~~
StrawberryFrog
I agree that lack of email is mad. But how big a decision can this be? If it
can run programs, it can run an mail client. Even an exchange client. "it
won't have an email client" is not part of the hardware design, it's just that
the software hasn't been written/ported yet.

~~~
panacea
Massive red flag that this entire article is bullshit if you ask me.

------
extension
I would love to see the WTF look on Jobs' face when he first saw this device.
What was Microsoft thinking?

The iPad works because it gives you a _simpler_ way to do the _simplest_
things you would otherwise do at your desk. It fits into your life quickly and
effortlessly and it's priced to be a discretionary purchase. This is all
essential for a new product category.

Microsoft thought that _architects_ were going to pay probably over $1000 for
this bizarre device to do _work_ on it?? Highly trained people doing
specialized work don't usually alter their workflow unless there is an obvious
need and a proven solution. If they focussed the entire product on a single
vertical then _maybe_ they could sell a few. But an all-purpose creativity
device with no 3rd party apps? That pie is in _orbit_.

EDIT: don't agree then?

~~~
rbanffy
What I found most ludicrous? Ballmer relying on Gates' taste to select one
device or another.

It's hard to fathom the absurdity of this.

He did the right thing - this whole idea of making something for creative
people, "for architects", is beyond ridiculous.

But then how can a project go so bad (I am remembering the Kin) and nobody
notices until there are 130 people working on it for a year? Here, when we
have a stupid idea, it's usually killed at the 5-people-involved stage. Could
it be Microsoft lacks adult supervision?

~~~
kenjackson
_What I found most ludicrous? Ballmer relying on Gates' taste to select one
device or another._

I know right? Why ask arguably the most successful businessman in history for
his opinion? Stupid Ballmer.

 _But then how can a project go so bad (I am remembering the Kin) and nobody
notices until there are 130 people working on it for a year? Here, when we
have a stupid idea, it's usually killed at the 5-people-involved stage._

That happens quite easily. The story I've heard about the Kin (with no
verifiable sources) is that they built the phone they planned on designing for
the most part. And had the phone shipped as a feature phone it may have been a
blockbuster. But Verizon changed their tune due to it being so late and made
it a smartphone. But it was a great idea, up until it was a really bad idea --
with contractual obligations for marketing and delivery.

Oddly, the neutered Kin is one of Verizon's top selling feature phones now.

~~~
rbanffy
> Why ask arguably the most successful businessman in history for his opinion?

In this specific case, I side with the stated opinion of one of the most
admired businessmen of all time, Steve Jobs. Bill Gates just has no taste.

After reading this description of the Courier, I don't know why even bothering
Gates with this.

edit: another explanation could be blame shifting. Ballmer knows his tenure
has not been exactly brilliant and canceling a project that _could be_ (it
would be portrayed as that, if convenient) the iPad killer Microsoft's board
dreams about would end up being ammunition against Ballmer in any future
conflict. By delegating this decision to Gates, Ballmer is safe. Killing the
Courier was the right thing, but Ballmer needed bigger balls than his own to
kill it.

~~~
sandee
There is something unique about tablets like iPad, which is tough to
understand. When Steve Jobs released it, he emphasized that this was a major
event. However at the time, it looked like a overblown iPhone. Personally for
me, there are days when i never miss using my iPad, but without PC i cannot do
even for few hours.

That said, i still feel that there is something i don't understand of this
device. Something which old-guards like steve and gates, who have seen it
happening once, feel about it and how its going to bring in some big changes
in future. Hat's off to Ballmer to call in the right person for task.

Hallmark of a good leadership is often about understanding the gravity of
situation, know your limitations and find the best person for task. No-wonder
companies with leaders like that lead the industry for decades.

------
larsberg
This article sounds as if nobody on the Courier team had been prepped for a
MSFT exec review. There's internal training you go through (Precision
Questioning and Answering) that teaches you what BillG's email question was:

A test of whether you thought your product through.

The question could have been e-mail, browsing, orientation, lefties versus
righties, market segmentation, price points, or compatibility with RTL
languages, but doesn't really matter.

It sounds as if Allard didn't have a full answer to the very obvious email
question. And that was project death, back in old-world MSFT. Read some of the
old examples from Joel on his BillG review; he was mainly checking to see if
you had your product completely buttoned up before letting you ship. Because
if the Courier team couldn't really answer how these "creatives" integrated
email into their workflow in detail, 1) how can you be certain of their other
decisions and 2) they probably would have shipped a half-baked V1 that would
have taken two or three years to fix, by which point you would have been ready
with Win8 tablet.

Sure, it's possible that he was harping on tablet email the way he threw GC
skepticism at DevDiv reviews Every. Single. Time. But, given that it was email
and not OneNote (the by far most-loved tablet app, IIRC), I suspect that the
Courier team was having trouble turning from a fun hippie prototype team into
a shipping organization with all of the details necessary to produce a solid
V1 product buttoned down and BillG called them on it.

~~~
kenjackson
But J Allard has been through plenty of BillG reviews. He did the XBox and
Zune. And was one of the instrumental people that pushed Microsoft to the
internet. He was one of the rising young stars at Microsoft.

He must've had Bill's ear on a regular basis in the past. I suspect this
wasn't the first time he heard or got that feedback from Bill. Bill probably
gave him the rope in the past, hoping that J would do something stunning. And
when the story didn't come together the way he hoped, Bill hung him with it.

Ironically, J's market failure, the Zune, will end up being the motivating UI
force for WP7/Win8 which killed his Courier.

~~~
larsberg
> He did the XBox and Zune.

I'm not sure on the timing, but these may have been in 2002 or more recent. At
least from my experiences in DevDiv, that's around the time that BillG pretty
much checked out.

I think that point and the first versions of both of those products prove my
point. The former really took a full generation before they figured out the
market. Zune has a _fantastic_ music service and the sharing gimmick worked
quite well, but they never really managed to figure out a way for the device
itself to become more than me-too in the eye of the consumer.

I somehow love the idea of SteveB asking 2012-BillG to channel 1998-BillG and
him just tearing into Allard, old-school review style. Particularly for some
of the hippie free love divisions that don't have any former BillG TAs or the
exec review culture, it would've been a bloodbath.

~~~
kenjackson
At least on the XBox, Gates and Allard interacted a fair bit. From the book
"Opening the XBox":

"In the next meeting with Gates, Allard, Ferroni, and Thomason broke the news
that the machine wouldn't be able to run the full Windows OS...Hase says he
admired Allard for 'having the stones' to 'rip Windows to shreds'...

Allard recalled later, 'I think that was the closest Bill ever got to
strangling me. But he ultimately came around.'"

The impression I get is that Allard has had his share of interaction with
Gates, which is why I think this email thing wasn't news to Allard. But I
suspect this time Allard couldn't convince Gates and so it was killed.

But this just me being a pundit speculator.

------
gamble
> A new survey by the Boston Consulting Group found that more than 40 percent
> of current tablet users in the United States want a tablet that runs
> Windows. That number jumps to 53 percent when non-tablet owners are
> included. The reason: familiarity with Windows, which still runs nearly 90
> percent of all PCs sold.

Here, in a nutshell, is why Steve Jobs was right when he said that it wasn't
the customer's job to know what they want. Not many people have the balls to
risk cannibalizing their own product and launch a product that their
marketeers are convinced the public doesn't want.

~~~
culturestate
Not to be pedantic, but Henry Ford figured that out long before SJ was a
twinkle in the valley's eye.

"If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses."

~~~
recoiledsnake
The current situation is more analogous to car owners preferring a different
kind of horse. Or even people not owning any vehicles still preferring a new
kind of horse rather than a car even after cars came out.

From [http://allthingsd.com/20111005/nevermind-the-
iphone-5-wheres...](http://allthingsd.com/20111005/nevermind-the-
iphone-5-wheres-my-windows-ipad/)

But the BCG study isn’t an anomaly. Forrester conducted a poll earlier this
year and got the same message, with an even starker gap between Microsoft and
everyone else: “Only 9% of consumers considering buying a tablet actively
prefer an Android tablet — compared with 16% who prefer iOS and 46% who prefer
Windows.”

When I wrote about it back in August, I found this so puzzling that I got
Forrester researcher Sarah Rotman Epps on the phone to confirm that this
wasn’t some weird typo. Nope, she told me.

And it’s sort of common sense: “When we survey consumers, it becomes very
clear that Windows is still a very popular brand,” she said. Apple has sold
tens of millions of iPads, but Microsoft has sold more than 400 million
Windows 7 devices.

~~~
AJ007
46% of consumers preferring Windows = 46% of consumers who are clueless to
what a tablet really is.

I've had a touchscreen LCD hooked up to my Windows 7 machine for about a year
and a half. Beyond scrolling through web pages it is unusable. The Windows UI
is designed for a keyboard and mouse. Now take this 22" touch screen I have
and bring it down to 7". Good luck doing anything.

Obviously Microsoft's answer to this is the new Metro overlay (or whatever
they are calling it for Windows 8.) If consumers are swiping through two
different versions with a Windows 8 tablet, and one of them is barely usable
on a touch screen, its going to flop.

I use Windows on my iPad -- by remoting in to my desktops. The only app that I
have found usable is LogMeIn because of how the mouse cursor is controlled.
Its not a pleasant experience but I can get minor work done at able 1/4th
speed or less. You can't release a device that does that out of the box and
put your brand on it.

Microsoft appears at a loss on how to move from the keyboard & mouse world to
the touchscreen & voice one. Windows has tons of software for it, none of
which was designed for touchscreen & voice world. I never have used this
phrase before, but Microsoft is trying to have their cake and eat it too.
Instead they will get nothing.

~~~
clarky07
You are trying to use something not designed for touch and suggesting they
suck at touch.

Have you tried a windows phone 7? I am a mobile dev who has worked on wp7,
android, and iPhone. I personally use an iPhone, but I found wp7 to be much
nicer than Android and pretty well designed.

~~~
AJ007
You didn't read the original article. The story is about microsoft not wanting
to fork Windows. They want Windows 8 to work on desktops, and tablets. From
the demo videos I saw, Windows 8 switch back and forth between a usable
touchscreen UI and the traditional keyboard & mouse UI. That is having your
cake and eating it too. And its going to piss consumers off when they think
they can use Excel on their new Windows Tablet and instead get an experience
akin to picking cactus nettles out of your face.

------
bradleyland
I know a lot of people were in love with the Courier idea, but I really
appreciate Bill Gates' call on this one. What looks cool in a demo doesn't
always translate to practice. There are a lot of uneasy questions here:

* How big is the market for a content creation tablet in Allard's vision?

* Is it safe to assume that architects, artists, etc would use such a device for their core work, or would it simply be a "for fun" device? "For fun" devices that sell at high price points are a big risk in my view.

* With Allard bucking the notion that the product needed to align with Microsoft's core software line-up, how wise would it be to bet the future (post-PC world, yada yada) on a product that diverges from the company line, rather than converges?

If Microsoft did anything with the Courier tablet, they should position it
within their entertainment division along with the XBox. The issue with that
is that they'd essentially be cultivating competing businesses within
Microsoft. XBox + Courier becomes the "post-PC" business unit, while the
Windows cash cow is forced to compete. I'm not sure that makes sense either.

There is not an easy play here. I think Metro is a huge step forward for
Microsoft, and they're making some interesting plays with regards to
traditional Windows integration. It certainly looks a lot like what people
have been screaming for: a tablet that can run a post-PC operating system, but
can switch back to their tried and true Windows desktop when needed. The
question is whether or not the compromise will deliver a sub-par experience.

~~~
roc
When's the last time a dual-UI delivered a good experience?

Microsoft's been down this road a few times and it hasn't worked yet. Just
look at Tablet XP. How many great tablet apps are there? Ones that really
leverage the stylus or were written to run efficiently and intelligently to
start quickly, resume sessions, auto-save documents and preserve precious
battery life?

And how many were lazy ports with, maybe, enlarged controls and piles of
inefficient legacy code lurking within? Code that just didn't map well to
actual mobile use, where every second of delay feels like an age, and add up
very quickly to a complete waste of time (compared to just walking over to a
desktop).

The only way I can see Windows 8's metro interface really working, is if the
mode shift to classic Windows UI and apps is tied to a 'docking' situation.
So, metro on the go, classic windows when you dock it into a proper display,
keyboard, mouse and external power. That would give developers the right
incentive to ensure they have something that works great while the user is out
and about, designed specifically for that use case, while still keeping the
full flexibility of legacy apps when the necessary peripherals (and plenty of
electricity) are available.

~~~
untog
_When's the last time a dual-UI delivered a good experience?_

Before the iPad was launched you could just as easily say "When's the last
time a tablet delivered a good experience?". Microsoft and others had tried
the form factor and failed, but then Apple came along and made a brilliant
device. There is no reason the same could not happen for dual-UI devices.

~~~
rimantas
That's kind of strange reasoning. iPad was the first tablet to deliver good
experience, and this was exactly because UI was tailored for touch. This does
little to assure that dual UI can be successful.

------
crikli
This quote made Brook's law echo in my head: "But an employee who worked on
Courier said the project was far enough along that the remaining work could
have been completed in months _if the company had added more people to the
team._ " [Emphasis mine]

~~~
huxley
Yeah, I basically agree except Brooks himself said in the Mythical Man-Month
that Brooks' Law is "an outrageous oversimplification."

Not every job is comparable to "nine women having one baby in one month."
There can be sweet spots in staffing, and sometimes projects really don't have
enough staff to achieve their goals.

------
cavalcade
I remembered how the Courier appealed to me more than the iPad when i saw that
video. The moleskin form factor is also a big plus over iPad since it was less
fragile and more compact (perfect for traveling).

I don't understand why they couldn't pursue both, similar to the iPad &
Macbook-pro dynamic.

------
schrototo
Of course, Microsoft's real problem is not that they killed the product, but
that they made it public at a time when it wasn't clear it would really go to
market.

~~~
colin_jack
Don't agree, to me the real problem is actually that they failed to make it or
any other similiar consumer product.

~~~
roc
If it wasn't working in practice, not making it is a virtue, not a problem.

~~~
colin_jack
Don't really follow, what makes you say it was not working in practice?

~~~
roc
I said _if_.

Microsoft killing it is only a _problem_ if it was turning into a great
device. Which we don't know any more than we know whether it was turning into
a bad one.

------
saturdayplace
Typically the form-factor seems to dominate discussions of the Courier, but
the really interesting thing is that it was intended to be a content creation
device. Contrast that with the iPad which excels at providing consumption. We
could have had two radically different tablet categories, each excellently
tailored to one specific intent. Microsoft really could have had a hand in
shaping the landscape where now they're catching up.

~~~
roc
The reasons cited by people who claim the iPad "can't do content creation" is
the virtual keyboard, which precludes efficient typing and the lack of legacy
apps, which precludes existing workflows.

The courier would be in that exact same position.

And let us not forget that there are _already_ two radically different tablet
categories. One tailored to typing and legacy apps and the other tailored to
all-new touch-focused apps. The market simply couldn't care less about the
ones with keyboards and apps that were designed for mice.

~~~
jamesgeck0
The courier would have had a stylus, handwriting recognition, and a really
nice screen. You'd have been able to cut and paste text and images by drawing
circles around them and swiping them into a clipboard-bucket-thing on the
other screen.

I don't know how well it would have worked in the final product, but it looked
pretty snazzy in the demo videos. :-)

~~~
cryptoz
One of the primary reasons I like computers is that I don't have to write by
hand anymore. I don't think I'm alone.

~~~
Fliko
I think the intention was for people who needed to draw things, like
architects, electrical/mechanical engineers, artists. I nearly die over the
fact that there is no awesome tablet that explicitly supports styluses and
uses them in some new awesome creative way. It would really take away the
barrier of taking notes in class with a tablet efficiently. (Even though I
still plan on getting a tablet to do such things).

------
cryptoz
It's incredible that parts of Microsoft were considering a tablet without
email, and excellent of Ballmer to go get Gates to tell him _no_ (though odd
that Ballmer couldn't figure that one out himself). Then RIM launched a tablet
with no email, and....yeah. Not such a good idea.

~~~
rrrazdan
I don't get your comment. Web based email. All I have ever used in my life.

~~~
shabda
I have an iPad and I have never used mail.app. I use Browser+gmail, so I agree
with you statement.

Tablet without email is reasonable IMO.

~~~
cryptoz
Does this mean you never get email notifications? In order to check your
email, you have to pick up your tablet, turn it on, unlock it, open the
browser, navigate to gmail.com, log in, and then see?

On the Xoom, it notifies me if anything happens and my email is a home screen
widget - the process _seems_ significantly smoother and faster this way.

~~~
philwelch
Email was never intended as a real-time, synchronous medium.

~~~
cryptoz
Time changes all things.

~~~
philwelch
I'm not unsympathetic to the argument that, if you're a manager, you should
keep on top of your email. If your work involves coordinating other people,
you'll spend most of your time in email anyway.

But that's as far as it goes. I'm not a manager. When I'm at work on my
computer, I want my email client to not pester me. Instead, I will go to it
once or twice a day when I've reached a natural pause in my work. When I'm at
home on my tablet, I want my email client to not pester me. Instead, I want to
read the news, watch a movie, or otherwise enjoy myself unmolested. If
something is urgent, I can receive calls and pages on my phone. My phone has
an email client. I don't want it to pester me, either.

------
nextparadigms
This confirms what I've suspected for a while. Microsoft is _very_ afraid of
disrupting its main business, which may actually lead to their downfall, if
the process hasn't already started because of their slow reaction to the
touchscreen devices market.

Contrast this with Apple or Google, who aren't afraid to build another OS that
is more forward looking, and may even end up replacing their main one down the
line (iOS in Apple's case, Chrome OS in Google's case).

~~~
macspoofing
>Microsoft is very afraid of disrupting its main business

Maybe, but this was a shitty idea.

------
cheald
It makes me kind of sad that we won't see something like the Courier. The
biggest problem with the current tablet market is that it's the iPad and a
bunch of devices that are emulating the iPad - they're all dumb-terminal
content-consumption devices, basically. Not that there's anything wrong with
that, but it isn't a full computer-replacement experience (no matter how much
Apple wants you to believe it is).

A tablet form-factor device geared at content creation would fill a major gap
in the tablet market, I think. My iPad is great for watching Netflix in bed or
for reading Flipboard feeds on the can, but using it to create anything longer
than a 2-sentence reply to an email is just a chore. A "digital notebook"
would be a really welcome addition to the market space. Something that would
let me take notes, write easily, capture and annotate photos, tinker with
design tools, or maybe even write code on the go, which could then be easily
transferred back and forth between my workstation and "notebook" would get my
money in a heartbeat.

The closest analog is the Macbook Air, not the iPad, but I think there's a
place between the Air and the tablet that we could see some neat progress in.

------
k-mcgrady
Although this could have been a really good product Bill Gates made the right
call. This would have just fragmented Windows further by the sounds of it.
Sinofsky's plan for Windows 8 to essentially make it work on PC's and Tablets
looks good. And it is something MS has wanted to do for a long time. They've
been putting full Windows on tablets for years but he has finally delivered an
interface that will make it work.

------
shimfish
I don't see how this was even a dilemma to Microsoft. The market for what is
essentially a digital scrap book could have in no way justified it. Seriously,
what percentage of the population would actually benefit from this
functionality?

Companies like Microsoft don't get into a market unless it's worth billions.

------
jasongullickson
What a depressing read.

If you have an iPad you might be interested to know these guys are trying to
bring a taste of the Courier to Apple's tablet: <http://tapose.tumblr.com/>

------
emehrkay
To me the courier was a cool device, very confusing because some "pages" were
browsers, some were note pads, some were image editors -- there were no clear
boundaries, but it was still cool none the less.

I feel that Steve Jobs would have went along with the idea of courier and not
worry so much about their flagship os. Well, thats what happen with IOS. This
makes me wonder how Gates and Jobs would have run Apple and MS if they were
put in charge of the opposing team in 2005.

~~~
suivix
Well iOS has been around in public since 2007, and it is certainly a flagship
OS. Unlike whatever would go onto the Courier, iOS is arguably Apple's most
important OS.

------
iradik
Why did they work on the Courier in the first place? Couldn't Bill have asked
if it supports e-mail before the project had hundreds of people assigned to
it?

------
tjogin
How do you kill something that was never alive in the first place?

~~~
Sembiance
Did you read the article? The Courier was VERY MUCH alive. Over 130 employees
working on it with custom hardware prototypes and many systems very far along.
It was certainly... killed.

~~~
sambeau
I guess this comes down to a when-does-life-begin argument.

The courier was busy being born when it was killed.

------
funkah
It looks like a big mess of jumbled ambitions. Microsoft needs to learn to
keep it simple and design things that will actually be useful.

