Well, it looks like the
Courier's demise could be having some far bigger implications for Microsoft than anyone had suspected. According to
ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley, Microsoft's Chief Experience Officer and CTO for its Entertainment and Devices division,
J Allard, has been on sabbatical from the company for the past short while and is "unlikely to return" -- all due to the fate of the Courier. According to Foley's sources, Allard was "the champion" of the Courier, and had reportedly made his feelings about the device and its ultimate demise clear on numerous occasions -- including, of course, directly to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. According to another of Foley's sources, things eventually got so heated that Ballmer "showed Allard the door" because of their disagreements about the Courier's potential. So, did he jump or was he pushed? Microsoft isn't saying, and Allard is seemingly nowhere to be found.
posted May 21st 2010 12:10PM
microsoft missed out big time :(
@ChairmanMeow give us our couirer back
@ChairmanMeow hey HP-Palm - are you reading this?
@ChairmanMeow
maybe another company can use Mr. Allard's talent and passion.
This is a good thing if Microsoft isn't willing to take a risk on something that could eventually be popular and sell hardware.
@Phenom
Woot another GOONER!!!
Back on topic, they'd do well to scoop him up.
You fucking fail Microsoft.
You gotta wonder how products like Xbox360/Zune/etc ever got off the ground in a stifled corporate culture like that. When you make as much money as they do riding msoffice and windows profits, you shouldn't be afraid to take risks on innovating. As loathesome and evil as Apple's corporate culture is they still manageto take risks, and win.
Microsoft, stop wasting time and resources looking at what google does, no one will EVER care about bing or maps or any of your other webfails copying google. Put some resources and talent into visionary geeks like baldilocks mcgee here.
@Mister Warmth actually bing maps is a lot better than google maps, Live Labs is innovating the shit out of what the internet is capable. So all of those "webfails" youre talking about are years ahead of competitors
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/blaise_aguera_y_arcas_demos_photosynth.html
http://www.ted.com/talks/blaise_aguera.html
its almost foolish to ignore the amazing things bing is doing right now
@ChairmanMeow
No way man. Just as well they did axe the Courier. MS would have completely ruined a great idea.
@ChairmanMeow
I'd consider this a double whammy for Mac Fangirls.
But seriously J, if you decide to leave... where the F will you go? Just stay at MS, and keep trying to convince big S to make the Inspector Gadget thing.... I know it's not fair, since the competition (big A down in SC) already has their version on the market, and selling out like crazy, but if MS knows one thing, its patiently waiting until everyone else in the world is doing something, before coming up with their innovative version.
@Mister Warmth Blaise Aguera is the most visionary person at microsoft man
Microsoft you idiots!!! Don't you realize if you build it they will come?!?
I mean... wait.
@ChairmanMeow
10 bucks he turns up at Apple.
@Mister Warmth
I must dissagree with you with Bing and Bing Maps, even google is copying them... they have a pretty good team
@ChairmanMeow
Down with Ballmer, make Allard the CEO of MS. Get him back to the company and let him fire Ballmer. Gates are you out there? Ballmer is fcKIN killing your company. Fire his ass!
@Wesscoast
"before coming up with their innovative version"
funniest thing I've read all day! Innovative? Don't you mean lackluster imitation pushed into popularity only by their monopolistic tactics? And you label people 'fangirls' ha ha ha!
I think Microsoft owns the trademark to "J" after the Xtreme Xbox Marketing Makeover. Will he be going back to "James" now?
One can hope.
iJames? gJames? Joogle? HPJ? Hmm...
@SteveyAyo And Betamax was vastly superior to VHS.
Courier was and always had been pure vaporware. A cheesy copy of Apple's 1987 Knowledge Navigator concept:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_Navigator
So while the Battle of the Baldies might have been triggered by Courier finally getting axed, the real problem must have been deeper. As in "We need to innovate" vs. "No, we just need to keep copying Apple."
@ChairmanMeow
I'm sure he will fit right in at HPalm
@daytripper
Doubtful. They're certainly not generating new ideas these days. In fact, you mistakenly believe that are interested in people's new ideas at all. Nope, they're only interested in one guy's ideas. And those seem to have run out.
Seriously, is it just me or has Apple come full circle back to the time Gates told Jobs he would totally get his mom an Apple computer. I mean, when I see the iPad, it seems like something that would be interesting to my mom or wife. It's for looking at stuff. I need something that does stuff.
@ChairmanMeow
Sony would do well to hire the guy.
Would be awesome if he went to JooJoo or some other tablet company, HP etc, and pumped out a kick ass slate.
@RabidAppleFanboi in what way are you responding to me about that> im talking about the innovation coming from LiveLabs and your talking about Courier and now trying to pretend they stole it from Apple... two completely separate divisions
@Joao Cagao
kinda sarcastic there... i know..
@ChairmanMeow someone needs to show steve the door
@ChairmanMeow
Microsoft is getting rid of the wrong person. Ballmer
@ChairmanMeow
In losing him, yes. Not necessarily in ditching Courier. It was certainly a promising product, but Engadgets often like to forget that a great concept does not a great product make. As we've seen with many half-baked technology products, being a large successful company does not mean you can magically make great products every single time.
MS may well have made the right move in killing Courier, but Allard is making the right move if he walks away and never looks back. When an executive goes to bat for a pet project and gets shut down, it's time to move on. You've spent your political capital. To hang on is just sad. He's no doubt got plenty of money. Quit, relax for a few months or a year. I'm sure he's already got headhunters knocking down his door trying to find him a place where he'll be appreciated.
@ChairmanMeow
Dear Allard, I think if Micro$oft closed the doors for your project, Google will be happy to have you as one member of the Android team.
@ChairmanMeow they forgot how allard gave life to the xbox. now it's up there with the big leagues.
@pbj, agreed...Sony would do well to hire this guy, they are in desperate need of something like this to reposition themselves anyway, because the Dash for Moms campaign is sad.
And if the idea that MS couldn't see the Couriers' potential is true, that would go down as the biggest piece of BS any corporation has ever put out there as to why they didn't pursue something like this.
This will not be the end of the Courier we all know that. Stay strong J Allard, someone will pick this up soon.
Kick that mouth breathing Steve Ballmer in the balls for us baldy!
Courier - Never Forget.
@daytripper If he had issues with Steve Ballmer giving him the creative control he wants, do you think Steve Jobs is going to be appealing to this guy?
Jobs has always said its his way or the highway.
@ChairmanMeow
Watch this guy go off and make his own start up with the device identical to the courier.
Hell I'd gladly buy it....MSFT name or not.
@Wesscoast Inspector Gadget thing....OMG, never heard it described that way before. It's perfect!
@ChairmanMeow Here's to J Allard starting a new company and making the Courier himself!!!
@Ducman69 Ya, and Steve Jobs has a proven record. He sigle handedly saved a dying company and made it the most successful and memorable company to date. Ballmer has done what.........Win7 (as if vista could get worse) and Bing? Come on Ballmer needed a real winner under his belt, and I personally think the Courier could've been that winner. For students, like me, the courier could've served a great purpose. Hell, I figured the only two devices I'd need for school would be an iPad and a courier. Oh well, I'm sure the iPad will serve the courier's entire purpose sometime in the future.
@ChairmanMeow : this guy?
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2007/05/jallard_with_dreads.jpg
@Cold Dead Fingers To own both an iPad and Courier is asinine, and the Courier's appeal was that it wasn't just a crippled iPhone that was too big to fit in your pocket.
And I'd give up on the idea that I'm somehow trying to pick sides between sweaty Steve Ballmer and skeletor Steve Jobs. I dislike both equally, I was merely pointing out that Steve Jobs is well known and self admits to running the company like a dictatorship. If he wants to do his own thing with more control to realize his vision, Apple is the last place he'd be looking.
I'm thinking HP would be the right backer for him, especially right now. =)
@ChairmanMeow One way or another, this just proves how courier was meant to be a great device. I wish MS will push the concept through. Also, hire a visionary on your team. Google has Rubin. And yours is? I'm sure its not him. http://j.mp/ballmer-gone-wild
@SteveyAyo
Wow...either you work for Microsoft or you are delusional.
@browserspot why? because i can recognize the innovation coming from LiveLabs? dont get me wrong MSFT as a whole isnt innovating too much (but still are) but what im really excited about is Live Labs, which is in control of the Bing Project and is why i use bing and bing maps, which really is better than google maps, took me a LONG time to even give it a shot but now im hooked
Photosynth,Seadragon and Pivot - AMAZING and INNOVATIVE tech from Microsoft Live Labs
@Beatnik You know that writing Microsoft with a $ is old and lame do you?
It seems MS is no longer listening to its consumer base, only to the enterprises. Courier could have easily killed iPad, considering how nonsensical it was. But the decision-makers in MS doesn't consider the sentiments of their consumers at all.
Sigh... Another IBM.
@ChairmanMeow
This just in! Microsoft just axed the Windows Phone 7. ...And Windows 7!
@ChairmanMeow
I have a strange feeling microsoft is being "nice" to apple. If apple makes money, Microsoft makes money. However, if iPad was made by Google (the gPad), then Microsoft would definitely bring Courier into the market with full force! Despite market value, the software portion of Apple's market value is NOWHERE near Microsoft's. Apple isn't really a threat to Microsoft, but Google sure is!
@SteveyAyo You make .10 every time you write L ive L abs are something? Holy crap...relax.
@SteveyAyo
Your run-on sentences sentenced us to sentences that run-on and on and on and on.
@ChairmanMeow
I didn't know Yoda had a son!
@SteveyAyo
Bro the courier would have been the most awesome Microsoft product ever! Microsoft would have raked in heaps. It is like turning down a few hundred million dollars!
@ChairmanMeow I have created a petition for the Courier
http://courier.epetitions.net/
@ChSchmidt
You know something is wrong with your society when people more willingly petition for a product than against a war.