
Why Microsoft Courier Should Be A Huge Success, Maybe Bigger Than Apple's Tablet - foppr
http://tomuse.com/microsoft-courier-kindle-crunchpad-apple-tablet/
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shalmanese
Arguing that a two hinged device will triumph because people crave the tactile
experience of the book is like arguing that a mechanical horse will triumph
over the car.

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panic
How can you compare two products that haven't even been announced?

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natemartin
Especially since MS is particularly known for saying "Oh, don't buy that, this
concept video we have is much much better! And it's coming soon.... real
soon."

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raganwald
Speaking of concept videos, "Why Apple Doesn't Do Concept Products:"

<http://counternotions.com/2008/08/12/concept-products/>

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jsz0
I would be shocked if Microsoft could ship this thing in the next 5 years. To
put things into perspective it has taken them (at least) 3 years to ship one
significant Windows Mobile release. This could easily slip to 4+ based on
current WM7 time-tables. We don't really know how long the Zune was in
development however they basically just re-branded Toshiba players with new
software so I would guess it was a pretty short pipeline. Took them about 3
years to develop the Zune HD which is the first Zune model that is unique
compared to its competition. I just don't see how, given their track record,
Microsoft could move fast enough to get this thing out the door anytime soon.

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stavrianos
I can't imagine this being cheap enough AND soon enough to properly compete
with kindle.

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hristov
The problem with Microsoft and mobile devices is they always want to put their
operating systems in them and their OS's are hogs which results in mobile
devices that are not that mobile really.

So I we will see about this thing. If they can make it significantly small
(i.e., much smaller than a netbook) it may be useful. But if it is around the
size of a small laptop or netbook (which is the what it looks like), it will
be utterly pointless, people will just use laptops instead. And if they are
serious about putting windows 7 in it, then it will probably be the size of a
laptop.

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stcredzero
I can think of much better form factors than a laptop or netbook for reference
material.

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ams6110
_I can see students and business professionals incorporating this device into
their busy daily lives to fill the gaps between their laptop and smartphone._

For this to happen the device will need to synchronize and interoperate
effortlessly with their laptop, desktop, and other devices. This is where
Windows has historically been weak. I admit I am ignorant of improvements that
might be in Windows 7.

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fname
There's nothing native like this built into 7, but products like LiveMesh and
DropBox could solve this.

