Why Microsoft Courier Should Be A Huge Success, Maybe Bigger Than Apple's Tablet

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.

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

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.

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

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.