Entelligence: What can Courier teach the market?
By Michael Gartenberg 
posted April 11th 2010 8:30PM
posted April 11th 2010 8:30PM
Entelligence is a column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he'll explore where our industry is and where it's going -- on both micro and macro levels -- with the unique wit and insight only he can provide.
A few months ago, some videos leaked from Microsoft showed a book-like device with two touch screens and a stylus. The user is seen researching, creating and designing content in a manner that looks both intuitive and innovative. Called Courier, the product doesn't (yet) exist beyond the conceptual videos, but it shows Microsoft is thinking in some new ways. Ross Rubin discussed Courier's role for creative professionals last week but I think there's even more at stake here -- I think the concept shows computing models are evolving. Here's what Courier represents to the market:
The pen isn't dead. The pen's been searching for a place in computing for more than a decade. We've seen experiments in all different types of pen computing from the PC to the PDA and the phone. They've all pretty much failed, and today's hot commodity is capacitive touch. Microsoft's Courier video shows how the pen can play a prominent role in the evolution of computing interfaces. While fingers are great for many things, there are tasks better served by the ability to manipulate at the pixel level. Handwriting and the ability to take written notes is one of them. Content creation and painting is another. It's clear Microsoft knows all this -- in addition to Courier, there's the Deskterity project that melds pen and touch on Surface.
Microsoft can move beyond Windows. It wasn't that long ago that Microsoft thought the UI for other devices and platforms needed to mimic Windows. Windows CE devices all had tiny start menus and task bars which were totally unusable in a small form factor. The result were clunky devices trying to replicate a desktop experience designed for a large screen with input from a mouse and keyboard. One of the reasons that Windows 7 slate PCs look so un-interesting is that Windows 7 just wasn't designed with those devices in mind. The net result is that Microsoft appears to be designing and optimizing for the form factor. We've seen this before with Surface and the beginnings of a new design with Windows Phone 7. If Microsoft can make the Courier experience familiar enough that consumers can embrace it while optimizing for the dual displays and pen we could see a nice breakthrough in next generation UI.
Tablets aren't just about content consumption. The Courier UI shows a lot of interaction between the user and the device for content creation. While designers are the example shown, Courier appears optimized for researching, note taking, journaling and other tasks that might require a combination of different media types interacting. As appliance computing becomes more common, users will need both the ability to consume as well as create and interact. Courier shows some new thought and how we might evolve beyond mouse and keyboard while still able to create and design.
The Courier video is impressive not only for technology it showcases but the thinking behind it. UI enhancements such as the "book spine" that holds content placed on the clipboard and the integration of connected content show some out-of-the-box thinking that's refreshing to see from Redmond -- it's cool that Microsoft is thinking about life beyond Windows and what it might look like. I'm personally hoping that there's more than just some conceptual animation and Microsoft is able to turn this set of ideas into a real product offering.
Michael Gartenberg is a partner at Altimeter Group. His weblog can be found at gartenblog.net. Contact him at gartenberg AT gmail DOT com. Views expressed here are his own.
The pen isn't dead. The pen's been searching for a place in computing for more than a decade. We've seen experiments in all different types of pen computing from the PC to the PDA and the phone. They've all pretty much failed, and today's hot commodity is capacitive touch. Microsoft's Courier video shows how the pen can play a prominent role in the evolution of computing interfaces. While fingers are great for many things, there are tasks better served by the ability to manipulate at the pixel level. Handwriting and the ability to take written notes is one of them. Content creation and painting is another. It's clear Microsoft knows all this -- in addition to Courier, there's the Deskterity project that melds pen and touch on Surface.
Microsoft can move beyond Windows. It wasn't that long ago that Microsoft thought the UI for other devices and platforms needed to mimic Windows. Windows CE devices all had tiny start menus and task bars which were totally unusable in a small form factor. The result were clunky devices trying to replicate a desktop experience designed for a large screen with input from a mouse and keyboard. One of the reasons that Windows 7 slate PCs look so un-interesting is that Windows 7 just wasn't designed with those devices in mind. The net result is that Microsoft appears to be designing and optimizing for the form factor. We've seen this before with Surface and the beginnings of a new design with Windows Phone 7. If Microsoft can make the Courier experience familiar enough that consumers can embrace it while optimizing for the dual displays and pen we could see a nice breakthrough in next generation UI.
As appliance computing becomes more common, users will need both the ability to consume as well as create and interact. |
Tablets aren't just about content consumption. The Courier UI shows a lot of interaction between the user and the device for content creation. While designers are the example shown, Courier appears optimized for researching, note taking, journaling and other tasks that might require a combination of different media types interacting. As appliance computing becomes more common, users will need both the ability to consume as well as create and interact. Courier shows some new thought and how we might evolve beyond mouse and keyboard while still able to create and design.
The Courier video is impressive not only for technology it showcases but the thinking behind it. UI enhancements such as the "book spine" that holds content placed on the clipboard and the integration of connected content show some out-of-the-box thinking that's refreshing to see from Redmond -- it's cool that Microsoft is thinking about life beyond Windows and what it might look like. I'm personally hoping that there's more than just some conceptual animation and Microsoft is able to turn this set of ideas into a real product offering.
Michael Gartenberg is a partner at Altimeter Group. His weblog can be found at gartenblog.net. Contact him at gartenberg AT gmail DOT com. Views expressed here are his own.
I think that there are definitely some unexplored options in the stylus/pen system. Short-Hand recognition for example seems like an invaluable asset to journalists or other professionals that employ heavy note taking.
the video is really exciting but that v o i c e ...almost made me fall of my chair.
The Courier is still, and will probably remain for years, a "concept".
The iPad exists. If I wanted to, I can buy one today.
It's amazing to me that neither MS nor Google nor Palm nor Blackberry can bring something out BEFORE Apple already sets the standard. We'll probably be on the third iteration of the iPad before Courier even makes it to beta.
by the way, I'm not a Apple fanboy. I don't even own anything Apple (not even iTunes). I've been passionately anti-Apple for quite some time now but am realizing why they have the following they do - they turn cool concepts into reality.
@shacker I think apple is good at investigating fringe markets. The iPod came along when a mp3 player wasn't in the pocket of every human on earth, the iPhone was the first 'smartphone' that wasn't aimed to the suit and tie crowd, and the iPad was released in an unsuccessful tablet market. Microsoft's expertise seems to be bullying and muscling their way into whatever market they want to really, just like they did with the Xbox. I think they have the resources to put Courier in a competitive position relatively quickly.
Hopefully the digitizer and touch work great together and the SDK allows some nice integration.
PLEASE RELEASE THIS ASAP MICROSOFT, THERE IS A HUGE MARKET OF STUDENTS AND ARTIST DYING TO GET OUR HANDS ON SOMETHING LIKE THIS WITH PRESSURE SENSITIVITY TO CREATE CONTENT, TAKE NOTES, DRAW DIAGRAMS... ETC
@soulstice
Students and Starving artists.Two target markets that have no money. Good call.
@Wesscoast
:)
so mean.
i wouldnt underestimate students though because they suck those pesos right out of their parents pants.
@Wesscoast
Considering artists and students are 75% percent of Apple's customer base (the other 25% are douche bags ;p) what the fuck are you talking about?
This is the device I have been waiting for. Years of HP pocket pc, tablet pc and various curious, but ultimately disappointing devices like the Nokia tablets, the Velo, and a netbook, have not replaced a pen & pencil and a paper notebook so far. I *have* replaced dead-tree books with a Kindle(for fiction) and Safari Books online, and Vinyl and CD's with Zune, so I know it can be done. Please please please make this be real.
Come on Microsoft. Make it real and I will settle with anywhere below $1,200, reflecting into my currency almost CNY 8,400. Didn't realize I've been waiting for this all along until I first saw the concept video. This is the real productivity. Gone are the stylus-on-tiny-virtual-keys, and one-Chinese-character-filling-whole-screen. Gone are those days when you somehow manage to make a ton of notes but can't index or search them.
Physical clipping books & pens work like a charm. But the real problem is when you got one thousand of them, they keep getting lost, and you've got to be really careful with sorting in case you lose track of things really fast.
Learning curve is not a problem. You pick it up while using it. There's nothing without a learning curve, except for if people invent the tube-in-your-head technology as shown in the Matrix.
absolutely want this device. If it works as described I will buy in a heartbeat....
All hail Courier, even if it's just a concept.
Why I'd actually line up to buy a "Courier" device once it came to market in 3 easy steps. 1) notice the formfactor that it might be? It closes so your screen won't get scratched up. That alone makes it a superior product that the iPad alone. 2) the size also, just throw it into a jacket pocket instead of having to carry a manpurse around. 3) iPad/phone/touch how many viewports to it? 1. here alone a split folding device has 2. Run a browser on one side and a program on the other. run 2 programs again, 1 on the left another on the right. Want to copy/paste from one to the other? drag and drop across somehow. nudge your finger across the screen and it dumps over to the other side. Or for example a textbook on one panel, note taking program on the other
Nothing - It does not exist.
I looove this product and if it can play media then definitely buying this device!
The themes of the article, especially about the pen are right. I don't want to use a pen all the time but it will be useful at times. As long as pen isn't the main input vehichle, it should do well. Especially if u can sync your tv shows from your media center dvr which apple would make u buy.
I think that Microsoft needs to look at extending the use of this device past the hands of designers. Like Mike said, Microsoft has shown that they can get past Windows and develop device-relevant OS's (Windows 7 Phone Series, The concept videos for Courier, Surface), so why not extend their marketable audience and make software built specifically for students, doctors, or whoever. Oh sidenote, if your eager to be the first to post that this is still vaporware, go ahead and save it. Microsoft is obviously intent on releasing this thing http://gizmodo.com/5500367/microsoft-job-posting-tongue-slip-sorta-confirms-courier-is-real
the stylus and using the tablet for productive purposes aren't new at all and aren't employed in terribly innovative ways aside from tossing in transitional animations that would be laggy as hell outside of concept vids so maybe all of engadget should stop jacking off over the courier?
Whether the stylus is useful or not doesn't matter to me. What gets me about this thing is the form factor. It mimics a book. When you think about it, it's a no-brainer. Why didn't anyone else think of it first? The worst part about the iPad is that nobody can figure out how the hold the dumb thing, but everybody knows how to hold a book. Suddenly you have double the screen real-estate and its *more* ergonomic. Win/Win
@Faxmonkey
You don't know how to hold a piece of paper? Dumbass.
@Faxmonkey
and for what logical reason should the hardware mimic the physical properties of a book... Explain this one.
and why split the screen in half?
Good job, now all apps have cleavage. I'm sure game makers are gonna love that.
@soulstice Perhaps you've never heard of the iPad. It is an electronics device covered entirely in fragile glass. Other than it's screen's aspect ratio, it has little in common with a "piece of paper".
When you hold a piece of paper, you typically hold it by the bottom or the side -- probably 4 fingers on the outside and thumb on the inside. This causes the piece of paper to warp slightly, a little bit of curvature. That's ok. Paper is flexible by nature and won't break by bending.
iPad's are rigid, and fragile -- also, and this very important -- heavy. The iPad weighs 1.5 pounds. That's 3x the weight of a PSP. It may not sound like much, but it's a surprising amount of weight for its size and its heavy enough that holding with just one hand is a great way to end up with a sore hand and a dropped iPad. Not to mention holding it still with one hand isn't easy too.
So what do you do? Well you get it so that the bottom edge is on a table or on your lap or on your knee and then secure it with the other hand. That way gravity is holding it up, and your hand is holding it steady. This, while impractical, gives you one hand free to work with the device. But when you need 2 hands free, such as typing, a whole new problem rears its ugly head.
Long story short, holding an iPad is nothing like holding a piece of paper. There's many different ways to try to hold one, but all of them are a little uncomfortable and not suitable to certain tasks.
@Wesscoast Why would games be a problem? Have you ever seen a Nintendo DS? Splitting the screen is hardly a liability, it can actually be an advantage.
At the very least you have to concede that the form factor of a book is a logical way to read books, is it not?
@Faxmonkey
no, its not.
a book is a book.
thats actually the only thing that i feel is weak about this courier thing.
there is no logical reason to chop a screen in two pieces just to be like a book.
that is a bad form does not follow function idea.
@Faxmonkey
I agree 100%. This is the way large-screen portable computing is meant to be. It takes all the strain off your fingers and puts the weight on your arm. This form factor won't be beaten until my hologram wrist watch comes out.
I am not so sure that the stylus has failed so far. I like glass fronted capacitive multitouch screens, but the stylus had some advantages too.
I recently dropped my HD2 (and of course the screen smashed horribly) and was forced to go back to using my O2 Orbit (HTC Artemis) for a while. I couldn't believe how nice it felt to use a stylus again. Typing was fast, note taking accurate and apps with finer details were more easily worked with. I don't see the failure in that - if you step back five years in tech and the device still feels nice to use it must have been fairly well designed.
If - and I sincerely hope they do - Microsoft releases this, I will enjoy watching the apple faithful desperately poking holes in it and defending their already irrelevant ipads
@cherryboom and your beloved apple is such a nice, fuzzy warm company I suppose..get real...
Give me a Courier with two Pixel Qi screens.
Classic M$ FUD and vapourware .......
Sure, that's what Microsoft is trying to make us believe.
But does anyone of you really believe they'll deliver?
Anything even near these concept videos?
By this year?
C'mon, that's ridiculous!
What Courier really tells the market (right now):
Fooling your customers with vaporware announcements and deliver something completely different years later (if ever) is the way to go, if you're not even close to catch up with the competition.
And it's ok to play this game several times in a row.
Remember the _longhorn_ teaser videos for _2003_?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJdaODYetuk
What MS came up with was _Vista_ in _2007_...
I'm curious to see which transformations Courier will go through.
In my opinion it doesn't tell anything true to the market, by now.
Proof me wrong, Microsoft. Please!
I'd love to see what the state of the art in handwriting recognition looks like in 2010.. But again, you'll just make pen input look even worse than it actually is. Makes me really sad to see that happen..
@mactechgeek Sure MS has failed to deliver in the past. The whole Longhorn project really strugged for organization and cooperation among departments for years. But then what the Longhorn project was is something nobody else has done. They needed to completely replace years of old technology, and there have been pains along the way, but now Windows 7 is out and it's a solid product.
When Apple needed to retool their entire OS they didn't rewrite their OS, they didn't write a new OS. They took an existing OS (FreeBSD) and an existing GUI (BeOS) and they put them together. And yes they did a good job of putting the two together, but that's much easier to do than the work MS has done with Windows; especially in Apple's very closed ecosystem.
MS has failed to deliver in the past but they have been delivering lately. Windows 7 is a great improvement on what came before with Windows. The ZuneHD is a great media player with a great interface. WindowsPhone7 is showing a lot of potential.
So maybe the Courier will never come to market. Maybe it will and it will suck. But maybe it will come along and be great. To just dismiss some really good concepts because it's a MS product and not an Apple product is just silly.
@gpsxsirus Sure, I get your point and I'm totally with you! Windows7 was definitely a step into the right direction and turned out to have a customer satisfaction earlier incarnations of Windows could only dream of. But still I can't see where Courier fits in Microsoft's (upcoming mobile) releases and their latest UI implementations (be it Windows7 or WindowsPhone7) obviously don't have anything to do with this one. That's why I can't see this one coming in a good condition anytime soon.
Let's just wait, until (again, if ever) we get a release date and videos of the real performance and UI-logic. All I'm saying is I can't believe this has passed an pre-alpha prototype state or to be somewhere near to become a releasable product.
If Microsoft can proof me wrong, I'm really open-minded towards this one! Promised!
But as of now, again, it looks, sounds and smells like .. with the best intentions.. a waaaaaay to early announcement of something which they don't know yet themselves if, when and for how much they'll be able sell it to people.
Microsoft isn't going to improve it's credibility by acting like that.
It's really not that good. All they've shown is complicated scrapbooking. Cut, paste, move, are just implemented in a way to look futuristic but is just overly complex. Everyone is fooled. Imagine if ipad took 20 minutes of video to just save pictures and write notes. People would be pissed. Here's an idea, buy a pogo pen for ipad. Press and hold to cut, paste, and save pictures. This could all be done more simply in a well writted ipad app.
The fanboys are pissed, downranking anyone.
At my last job (i've just been downsized) I spent a lot of time at clients' sites gathering info on and troubleshoot issues with my company's system. Often not having access to our ticket system until the end of the day I'd find myself taking LOTS of notes that didn't always make sense hours or days later. Something like the courier would have made my job much easier.
Hopefully MS is out on the net reading what we're all saying about the videos they've released and push hard to make this a real product. It will open up a whole new market and really change the face of how people do business. Especially if they do it in a more open fassion.
"the product doesn't (yet) exist beyond the conceptual videos"
I think this says it all. Until MS has a working model with a demo OS running the courier is not worth mention. At the pace they're working on the mobile OS the courier will be out in 2020.
I went to the Apple store and bought an iPad. To complete my credit card transaction, I had to sign on an iPod Touch using my finger.....its the most unnatural thing to do!
"The pen's been searching for a place in computing for more than a decade. We've seen experiments in all different types of pen computing from the PC to the PDA and the phone. They've all pretty much failed, and today's hot commodity is capacitive touch."
Pretty sure Wacom would disagree with this.
I just watched the video a second time. I am sorry, but I think that it is a collection of nice interface IDEAS but not a UI at all.
Look at the beginning: flicking a name from the address book from left to right on a map shows the location. Flicking it onto a journal page (or a note) opens the "Share with?" dialog.
I mean - who would really remember all the possible functionalities doing a flick, when you think that this will be implemented not only for the address book?
I would call it the "Console controller dilemma". A game console uses the exact same buttons, but when I switch from one shooter to an other after playing one for a while, I have to relearn the possible combinations.
Flicking something is definitely cool, but I doubt that it will be easy to "learn" the UI. All in all I think the UI is too inconsistent for an upcoming product. This will take a while until it appears in the stores.
@ChrisGo
So how many things are actually logical on your computer and your moible?
No matter if you run Windows, Mac OSx, Linux/Symbian, iPhone OS, and so on, you always have to learn new things.
Besides, ok, so you dont remember that you can drag a contact to the map, so instead you open the map and write the adress... sure, it wasnt the fastet way, but, if that is how you know how, just do it that way instead. On the other hand, much of the interaction with this product is made by draging things back and forward, so you might just suspect that there is some drag and drop feature there.
Obviously, this thing is generating a lot of interest. The videos stir our imaginations with the Courier's endless possible uses.
Health: Imagine, students without backpacks. Every school book could be downloaded to the device for the semester/year.
Savings: The money savings in school supplies alone would pay for the device over it's lifetime.
Green: Without getting into it too deeply, it could be consider "green" by cutting down on the need for books, paper, pens, pencils, tape, etc.
Productivity: The ability to read your text books and immediately highlight and capture important notes that come up later in a quick automatic study guide. I can already see the teacher/professor working in class on a Smart Board or other connected device to send important information out to the students...test schedules, notes, homework projects.
The possibilities are endless. Make this a reality! SOON!
I'm not in school anymore but, I can imagine using this in the office for everything i do currently with pen and paper. I made an attempt on a tablet but, it just wasn't capable enough or really mobile enough for practical use.
I would drop serious $$$ and any smartphone/blackberry for this device. I would just get 3G/4G with the device and switch to a simple phone. I don't mind pulling this out to check my email which will just like looking at it on my desktop, taking notes, media device, etc.
Good article. The other things I'd add that the Courier can teach the market:
Not only is the pen not dead, pen + finger = ideal. People talk about this replacing paper, which is crazy. But the first device to have both in one screen might. Meanwhile, if we have to have two screens to do implement both capacitive and resistive, that will do fine.
The UI can be king. The iPhone actually showed this already, but the Courier shows the same thing. We don't know how many features the Courier really has. The Courier could restrict flash, could have no access to a file system, could have no multitasking--all features of current iPhones--yet this thing has generated a lot of buzz mostly because it looks easy and fun to use. I doubt the Courier's fans are automatically assuming it's running all this on top of some regular desktop Windows.
@zangetsu2
And as for some people saying it's just a concept (like a cold fusion machine that fits in your pocket or whatever), the technology to make the Courier currently exists. The hardest part of making one would be writing the software.
@zangetsu2
Multitasking in some form is there, since they run different applications on the different screens.
what does the ipad teach us?
DO NOT BUY THAT POS
If this could sync with Onenotes, it would be awesome.