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Champion of the Microsoft Courier Tablet to Leave?

By Alvin Soon - on 25 May 2010, 11:02am

Champion of the Microsoft Courier Tablet to Leave?

The Microsoft Courier tablet was one of the most interesting ideas we'd seen out of Redmond for some time, but unfortunately it's been axed, with nary a reason than the standard PR-response:

“At any given time, we’re looking at new ideas, investigating, testing, incubating them. It’s in our DNA to develop new form factors and natural user interfaces to foster productivity and creativity. The Courier project is an example of this type of effort. It will be evaluated for use in future offerings, but we have no plans to build such a device at this time.”

Speculation comes from ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley that the champion of the Courier, J Allard, Chief Experience Officer and Chief Technology Officer, Entertainment and Devices Division of Microsoft, may be leaving Microsoft because his project was killed off.

ZDNet - Word inside was Allard was none too happy about the killing off of Courier and has finally made good on his (what sounds like they may have been regular) threats about leaving the company all together. (Another person with whom I communicated claimed CEO Steve Ballmer showed Allard the door because of disagreements regarding the Courier’s potential.)

I asked Microsoft for comment and was told: “We’re not commenting on ‘rumor or speculation.’ (I asked as a follow-up whether Allard is on sabbatical and was told Microsoft “didn’t have more to share.”)

The full story here.

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