Microsoft's Very Big Step In the Right Direction

Microsoft has been doing some very interesting and out-of-character things as of late: it's new touchscreen Zune HD is a hit with critics, Windows 7 is shaping up to be a solid OS and should help shovel Vista under the rug, and the company is in the process of opening its own branded retail stores.  Of course, everything the company does can be viewed as a way to emulate it's rival, Apple's, growing success.  The Zune HD is Microsoft's iPod Touch, Windows 7 borrows some features from Mac OS X and the retail stores are obviously going up against Apple's wildly popular sterilized Mac-centric shops.

However, not everything Microsoft releases is hot off the photo-copier.  Today, Microsoft announced Courier (see video below) - a tablet PC that functions like a journal and allows the user to manipulate content from the web and the user's own handwriting in a very intuitive way.  The device uses both a stylus and your fingers as input devices to record handwriting and track gestures across both of its touchscreens.  Circle an image from the web on the left, then "cut" it out of the page and drag it to the right - where your "journal" is stored - for safe keeping.  Microsoft has "chalked Courier up to rumor and speculation," (CNet, 9/22/09) but it can't be - not because I really want this product, but because Microsoft has the potential to tap two very vital markets: students and professionals.

Apple's long-rumored tablet has been touted as everything from a portable Apple TV to a really big iPhone.  The one theme that seems to run across 90% of these rumors is that the device will be media-centric.  Apple's bread-and-butter is iTunes - specifically the iTunes store.  The 75,000 apps and millions of songs and movies have been the company's focus since the store was unleashed.  When Steve Jobs announces whatever tablet-like device he's been working on, it will probably focus on managing and interacting with your digital media.  So, while everyone is distracted by Apple's shiny, aluminum and glass-covered box built by Unicorns at the top of Mount Olympus when it's announced, Microsoft can slip in behind Apple and commandeer two very important demographics without breaking a sweat: students and professionals.

Microsoft's Courier looks like it was designed as a paper notebook replacement.  Imagine sitting in English class and reading a passage from Moby Dick on the left side of your Courier, while writing about it on the right side.  Then, when the teacher tells you to remember a particular theme from that passage, you highlight it with your stylus and make a note right on the text without damaging the book.  Taking notes for a classmate who was sick for today's lecture?  Drag his address book listing to your journal and suddenly he can see all of your notes on the various types of sharks in what was possibly the most boring chapter of that novel.  The stylus is really the only way to capture handwriting on a tablet and it's the only comfortable way I can see entering text on such a device.  An onscreen keyboard that is either be too small to use or so big that it takes up the entire screen seems counterproductive.  Also, Steve Jobs said when he debuted the iPhone that he hates styluses, so don't expect the Apple tablet to come with an iPen.

What about professionals?  Or doctors?  In the video demonstration below, the girl was a designer, but I can see a device like this being pivotal in hospitals all over the world.  Automatically have test results pushed to your Courier and entered into the patient's chart.  Keep x-rays and MRI data on-hand at all times.  This tablet could help streamline the healthcare industry more than anything Obama is proposing by making everything faster and more efficient.  Your doctor won't have to make three trips to the lab for test results because the results will come to her as soon as they're ready.

Of course, the Courier is just a prototype, but it's a reminder that companies can change and that those who were once on top and lost their footing can reach the top again.  I hope Microsoft doesn't shove this under the rug the same way they've done with Vista.  The Courier is the first product I've seen from Microsoft that's made me hesitate to buy a Mac device.  I love my Mac, but if this is where Microsoft is going, I want to come along.

Courier Demo Video:

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