You raise some good points here. I think ultimately it's clear that as cool as the Courier may have been, a "real" Windows tablet like the Win 8 Metro that's be

You raise some good points here. I think ultimately it's clear that as cool as the Courier may have been, a "real" Windows tablet like the Win 8 Metro that's been previewed is the product Microsoft can really build around. In a perfect world, we'd have both devices, but there's an enormous danger in releasing an interim niche product before your real product arrived -- for example, the press surrounding the Kin phone was devastating, and almost certainly hurt the release of WinPhone 7. Even if the Courier turned out to be a success, it could have confused the marketplace. It's often said that one of Steve Jobs' greatest strength was his willingness to kill products before the light of day unless they were the right products and they were good enough. It's interesting that Ballmer leaned on Gates to make this decision, but I think Gates's decision was the right one for Microsoft.