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Microsoft (non)tablet details: Twin screens
September 23, 2009 | 3:17 am
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By David Rothman
“Courier is a real device, and we’ve heard that it’s in the ‘late prototype’ stage of development. It’s not a tablet, it’s a booklet. The dual 7-inch (or so) screens are multitouch, and designed for writing, flicking and drawing with a stylus, in addition to fingers. “ – Gizmodo.
Details: Techmeme and Google roundups and CNET (thanks, Felix), plus BNET’s not-so-upbeat item on the device’s commercoal prospects.
The TeleRead take: Hey, told you something might be cookin’. For now I’d like to know more about the e-book angle, and whether Microsoft will spiff up its Reader app in a major way.
So, gang, what are your further thoughts, especially from an e-book angle? Like the idea of an extra screen? Or is it just a gimmick?
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Comments:
For the past few months there have been rumblings that MS is planning to change their approach to the cell-phone market (re: “pink” phone) by switching from an open-to-all-comers platform (Windows Phone) where it relies on the oems to promote their own products (with the result that people don’t realize that Windows Mobile worldwide sales are actually comparable to the iPhone) to new model wherevMS designs the product, not just a refrence design, and signs up a handful of close partners bidding to manufacture the product variants for different markets.
The fact that the Courier prototype is being developed by an XBOX emigre, J Allard, says volumes about how serious MS is about this effort.
Thoughts?
Well, its a ptototype and there is no guarantee the launch product will look anything like it, but…
1- Asus is doing a dual pane reader tablet for late this year, no? It may very well be a Courier-project design or it may be that great minds think alike.
2- Courier is clearly *not* a consumer product and just as clearly not intended to go after the recreational reading matket.
3- The specs and UI make it pretty obvious Courier is targetting the same market as One-Note. So, MS Reader may be a part of the ibitiative (I dearly hope so) but the clear target is the higher-education market; T-E-X-T-B-O-O-K-S.
4- The use of MS Surface tech suggests the firmware wil be running Atop a version of Windows embedded (much like XBOX) and have strong communications and community features, like XBOX and Zune. Again, well-suited to the higher education market.
5- The use of dual 7″ screens suggests reliance on Netbook-class components and tech so the the platform could be Atom-based (maybe the dual core version) but the ULV versions of Intel’s Core are more likely.
6- I’d expect to see pricing in the US$800-range, give or take $200.
7- Finally: battery life will make or break this product. It needs all-day power; basically 10-12 hours.
I don’t have a problem with using half your screen space as desktop, and the other as display. But the hinged dual-screen thing is a gimmick… the same can be accomplished with one screen, on a tablet-type device, with less complexity of hardware and software.
I’ll refrain from making any other comments about it until some vendor actually builds one…
The two-screen approach doesn’t look like a gimmick from here, it looks like the answer. Once the technology matures and the device prices come down, a two-screen device which matches the size and feel of a printed book will allow a reader to do what we all do now — skim ahead and speed-read when we want to. It also does away with the claustrophobic sense one gets with the current batch of single-screens: We can’t see what’s coming, a sense akin to sitting in the bulkhead seat of an airplane, being boxed in behind a truck on the interstate, or reading the crawl across the bottom of a TV screen.
Until flexible/foldable screens are common there likely will be uses for dual screen gadgets.
It is no gimmick, just a way to fit more surface area in a smaller form factor.
That said; bear in mind thevCourier is a prototype and one of many.
The final poduct may or not be a multi-screen gadget.
Until yesterday, I would have agreed that the dual screen gimmic is an unnecessary expense. But talking with my niece and nephew about schoolbooks, I can see an opportunity there. Schoolbooks tend to be graphics-intense, and the second screen would offer a nice way of looking at the charts, photos and other visual displays while also having the text available.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t look like an affordable device.
Rob Preece
Publisher,