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iPad Competitors Begin to Disappear Even Before Being Released

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Apr 12, 2001
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163610-courier_rendering.jpg


Microsoft's "Courier" booklet-style tablet concept
Silicon Alley Insider yesterday noted that HP appears to be putting its "slate" tablet computer on hold as it looks to complete its acquisition of Palm. The move appears to be related to HP needing to make decisions about how exactly it will integrate Palm's webOS smartphone operating system into its product roadmap.
An analyst asked what HP would be doing with its iPad-rival. HP's Todd Bradley responded, "We haven't made roadmap announcements," but that HP will explain its Slate plans in more detail when the Palm deal closes.

That's at least a few months away: HP expects the deal to close during its fiscal third quarter, which ends at the end of July. And building Palm's WebOS operating system into HP tablets could take much longer -- perhaps even a year or more.
Click to expand...
HP's slate, previously destined to use Microsoft Windows, was demoed by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in early January, several weeks before Apple introduced the iPad. The following month, HP indicated that it was refining the final specs of the slate in response to the iPad and looking to price it competitively with Apple's tablet device.

Today, Gizmodo reports that Microsoft has cancelled its own "Courier" booklet-style tablet device.
We're told that on Wednesday, Microsoft execs informed the internal team that had been working on the tablet device that the project would no longer be supported. Courier had never been publicly announced or acknowledged as a Microsoft product.
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The cancellation was confirmed in a response from a Microsoft representative, who noted that it Courier was one of the company's creative explorations of new form factors and interfaces, but that it is not planned to go into production. The Courier concept offered two touch-sensitive screens in a foldable format and incorporates touch, stylus, and handwriting recognition input.

Article Link: iPad Competitors Begin to Disappear Even Before Being Released
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2010/04/29/ipad-competitors-begin-to-disappear-even-before-being-released/
I don't know how anyone can say this is a good thing (although I know the fanboys have already corked the champagne). Less competition is bad for consumers.
 
yg17 said:
I don't know how anyone can say this is a good thing (although I know the fanboys have already corked the champagne). Less competition is bad for consumers.
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True. I have no interest in any of the proposed competitors, but the more things out there with better features than the iPad the more push there is for Apple to add those or other features. ;)
 
Doubt I would've bought one but this is still bad news. Just means Apple will keep getting away with gimping the big iPod.
 
Hi,

I imagine that Microsoft and HP sat down in a board room with an iPad in one hand and the slate in the other and said "oh"

The iPad is so far ahead of what was displayed by Steve Ballmer that they knew they had to rethink the device.

s.
 
"Microsoft execs informed the internal team that had been working on the tablet device that the project would no longer be supported."

Poor guy.
 
yg17 said:
I don't know how anyone can say this is a good thing (although I know the fanboys have already corked the champagne). Less competition is bad for consumers.
Click to expand...

2 minutes penalty box.

If it was destined for commercial success it would not have been cancelled. So in a strange way it's a good thing and allows MS / others to re-attack the space without being tied to a bad approach.
 
nfrankli said:
that's the problem. They aren't really competitive vs. the iPad.
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I don't know how you can come to that conclusion without seeing and using the device or without any sales figures. They may have been competitive with the iPad, just like Android is competitive with the iPhone despite what people first said about it when it first was released.
 
mr.steevo said:
Hi,

I imagine that Microsoft and HP sat down in a board room with an iPad in one hand and the slate in the other and said "oh"

The iPad is so far ahead of what was displayed by Steve Ballmer that they knew they had to rethink the device.

s.
Click to expand...

OH NO YOU DIDN'T!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
D***********************************MN!!!!!
 
Hahahaha the Courier is vaporware. I'm laughing because I'm reminded how the PC fanboyz kept boasting how it would be the next best thing.

Guess not. :rolleyes:
 
yg17 said:
I don't know how anyone can say this is a good thing (although I know the fanboys have already corked the champagne). Less competition is bad for consumers.
Click to expand...

I'll say it's a good thing because there just didn't seem any way to bring this product to market in a realistic fashion at a realistic price point.

Don't get me wrong, I want competition in the market but I want companies like MS focused on producing killer products that they can make, sell and support that genuinely move the game on. Courier ALWAYS smacked of being vaporware, existing in prototypes and proof-of-concept mock ups alone. It was a spoiler for the iPad in the same way that they made such a big deal over the HP Slate despite it really being the same basic tablet they've been hawking ever since the Windows XP days. Glad to see it scuttle off into the dark and hopefully we'll now see MS bring out a really good Windows Phone 7 tablet in six to nine months.
 
If Hp's Slate has WebOS then it's a day one purchase for me! :)

I think it can coexist with my iPad! Even though I don't really need two tablets... Oh well!
 
Dooger said:
Doubt I would've bought one but this is still bad news. Just means Apple will keep getting away with gimping the big iPod.
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ftw.

I still fail to understand how this is "magical" at all.

It is a large iPhone that cant make phone calls or fit in my pocket...
-Oh yeah, and it has some software changes that lets it "read books".

I would love to see a serious contender that brings some NEW technology to the table...
 
Shocker....

MS peddling vapourware - no way.

What's funny is the Gizmodo/Engadget collective whipping themselves up into a frenzy of disappointment and anger - don't they understand anything about the Microsoft way.

This isn't less competition for Apple - it was never a product Microsoft could have brought to market. Vapourware does not equal competition.
 
I doubt at least in the next decade that Apple could dominate in the PC market (in terms of marketshare) and with Steves assertion that "the future is mobile" then Apple is poised to basically have this self created touchy couch surfer market all to themselves for a good while yet.
 
Damn, less competition means we gotta keep putting up with more of these draconian Apphole ways.
 
I think it was only a matter of time before this happened. I mean the HP slate was only shown on some mock up videos, the things we saw in the first videos were not a real production unit. Then we saw an image of the slate and it looked real but we never saw it in action. The most proof we saw of HP actively doing a slate, was the poster that compared the slate and the ipad side by side, noting each other's weaknesses and strengths.

The courier was also the same thing, only an idea and some videos. It looked cool, it still does, but there was no way that thing was going to be out there in the market by the next few months as many expected back in January I think when we saw it.

No offense, but if it took Apple this long to come up with what is now the iPad, with the features it has and at the price that it is… it was almost irresponsible to believe that HP was ready, with what it basically a super computer in an iPad format, to be in the market as of this moment. We saw it back in January, cool, but, people believing that they would have one in their hands by May? C'mon.
 
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