Microsoft Courier Project Discontinued

In a move designed as a response to a new wave of speculation orbiting around the Courier dual-screen tablet, Microsoft confirmed officially that it had discontinued the project. Indications that the Redmond company had decided to nix the product had emerged from the same source that uncovered Courier in the first place, Gizmodo. An official statement provided by Frank Shaw, corporate vice president, Corporate Communications, was, in this regard, the final nail in the Courier project's coffin.

“Over the past few months there has been a ton of speculation about the 'Courier' project from Microsoft. We’ve not discussed or confirmed the project,” Shaw stated. And, in this regard, the Corporate VP for Microsoft Corporate Communications is right on the money. The software giant’s dual-screen tablet, designed to feature both a multi-touch and pen interaction model, was never announced officially by the company.

Instead, Courier has been nothing more than a Microsoft incubation project. And, as a variety of other incubation projects from the Redmond company, it did not live past its embryonic stage, to see the proverbial light of day. However, this is not to say that the innovations debuted in Courier won’t in fact survive past the death of the project.

“At any given time, across any of our business groups, there are new ideas being investigated, tested, and incubated. It’s in Microsoft’s DNA to continually develop and incubate new technologies to foster productivity and creativity. The 'Courier' project is an example of this type of effort and its technologies will be evaluated for use in future Microsoft offerings,” Shaw explained.

The fact of the matter is that bits and pieces of Courier could be transitioned to other projects such as Windows, for example. Still, such a move won’t happen for at least a few years, as, right now, Microsoft has other priorities. “I am excited about the great set of products and services rolling out from the company in the next few months – Office 2010, Windows Phone KIN, Windows Phone 7, SQL Server 2008 R2, Project Natal from the Xbox team, Windows Live Wave 4, among others. It is going to be a fun next few months,” Shaw added.