5 ms·

I was talking about MS have the right idea but failing to go though with it. MS Courier concept was introduced well before the iPad, suggesting someone there be

by nivla 12y ago

I was talking about MS have the right idea but failing to go though with it. MS Courier concept was introduced well before the iPad, suggesting someone there believed that it was going to be the future but they ended up killing it before the board din't agree to it. Similarly, they were already working on a voice assistant called "Tell Me" even before Siri was introduced by Apple [1]. A lot of people think MS doesn't come up with great ideas but its quite the opposite. They just fail to execute it in a timely manner or require a few iterations to get it perfect. [1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iB6pWs46GY8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iB6pWs46GY8

ghshephard 12y ago
Ideas are cheap, execution is everything. You said it yourself, "MS Courier" was a concept - it wasn't actually a product. Your average gifted 13 year old can come up with a lot of great concepts, the challenge is in actually creating them. Even Apple is running into this - Siri requires a rock solid Wireless connection, without it, Siri no longer works, which kind of defeats the purpose of a mobile voice assistant.
- Shooti 12y ago
  'Courier was much more than a clever vision. The team, which had more than 130 Microsoft employees contributing to it, had created several prototypes that gave a clear sense about the type of experience users would get. There were still tough hardware and software issues to resolve when Microsoft pulled the plug. But an employee who worked on Courier said the project was far enough along that the remaining work could have been completed in months if the company had added more people to the team. "There was extensive work done on the business, the technology and the experience," said a member of the Courier team. "It was very complete, not a whim."' http://www.cnet.com/uk/news/the-inside-story-of-how-microsoft-killed-its-courier-tablet/ http://www.cnet.com/uk/news/the-inside-story-of-how-microsof...
  - skc 12y ago
    This is so revisionist. That thing had two screens. How much would it have weighed? What would the battery life have been like? How much would it have cost. These things matter.
MBCook 12y ago
> [...] but they ended up killing it before the board din't agree to it. The technology when they 'announced' it was one thing, I'm not sure that we have the technology today to make the Courier practical. Getting it thin and light enough at that size, but keeping good battery life would be a real challenge.
coldtea 12y ago
>I was talking about MS have the right idea but failing to go though with it. MS Courier concept was introduced well before the iPad, It was introduced before the iPad product -- but not before the iPad concept, which Apple was working on far before the iPhone's introduction. The Courrier (shown in 2008) was actually a PR envisioning of what the rumored Apple tablet will be. And, as something that came out after the iPhone, it wasn't that hard to think of. Heck, Apple had similar concepts from the nineties even -- including the "voice assistant" thing, but I don't think those count. Execution and brinding a solid offering to market counts.
NicoJuicy 12y ago
--> They just fail to execute it in a timely manner or require a few iterations to get it perfect <-- You nailed it, it's kinda like when a Windows version came out. 2000 and Millenium were bad. XP was great. Vista was bad, SP1 was better and SP2 was great. People just remember Vista without the SP's. Windows 7 was what i needed, but that seemed like SP3 for Vista, only they named it Windows 7. Then you have Windows 8, which will probably go a similar way like Vista did.
- asveikau 12y ago
  2000 was great. When XP came out a lot of people complained about how they added bloat and pointlessly screwed with the shell. (By this I mean explorer, not how Unix users understand the term "shell".) I felt that way too. XP got a little better as hardware improved and SP2 fixed some issues, then Vista made everyone forget what they hated before and suddenly XP was the "lean" one. (Actually the more likely explanation is that the 2000-using XP-haters and the XP-using Vista-haters are not the same people. Maybe the former group gave up and no longer cares about Windows.)

by nivla 12y ago

ghshephard 12y ago

Ideas are cheap, execution is everything. You said it yourself, "MS Courier" was a concept - it wasn't actually a product. Your average gifted 13 year old can come up with a lot of great concepts, the challenge is in actually creating them. Even Apple is running into this - Siri requires a rock solid Wireless connection, without it, Siri no longer works, which kind of defeats the purpose of a mobile voice assistant.

Shooti 12y ago
'Courier was much more than a clever vision. The team, which had more than 130 Microsoft employees contributing to it, had created several prototypes that gave a clear sense about the type of experience users would get. There were still tough hardware and software issues to resolve when Microsoft pulled the plug. But an employee who worked on Courier said the project was far enough along that the remaining work could have been completed in months if the company had added more people to the team. "There was extensive work done on the business, the technology and the experience," said a member of the Courier team. "It was very complete, not a whim."' http://www.cnet.com/uk/news/the-inside-story-of-how-microsoft-killed-its-courier-tablet/ http://www.cnet.com/uk/news/the-inside-story-of-how-microsof...
- skc 12y ago
  This is so revisionist. That thing had two screens. How much would it have weighed? What would the battery life have been like? How much would it have cost. These things matter.

MBCook 12y ago

> [...] but they ended up killing it before the board din't agree to it. The technology when they 'announced' it was one thing, I'm not sure that we have the technology today to make the Courier practical. Getting it thin and light enough at that size, but keeping good battery life would be a real challenge.

coldtea 12y ago

>I was talking about MS have the right idea but failing to go though with it. MS Courier concept was introduced well before the iPad, It was introduced before the iPad product -- but not before the iPad concept, which Apple was working on far before the iPhone's introduction. The Courrier (shown in 2008) was actually a PR envisioning of what the rumored Apple tablet will be. And, as something that came out after the iPhone, it wasn't that hard to think of. Heck, Apple had similar concepts from the nineties even -- including the "voice assistant" thing, but I don't think those count. Execution and brinding a solid offering to market counts.

NicoJuicy 12y ago

--> They just fail to execute it in a timely manner or require a few iterations to get it perfect <-- You nailed it, it's kinda like when a Windows version came out. 2000 and Millenium were bad. XP was great. Vista was bad, SP1 was better and SP2 was great. People just remember Vista without the SP's. Windows 7 was what i needed, but that seemed like SP3 for Vista, only they named it Windows 7. Then you have Windows 8, which will probably go a similar way like Vista did.

asveikau 12y ago
2000 was great. When XP came out a lot of people complained about how they added bloat and pointlessly screwed with the shell. (By this I mean explorer, not how Unix users understand the term "shell".) I felt that way too. XP got a little better as hardware improved and SP2 fixed some issues, then Vista made everyone forget what they hated before and suddenly XP was the "lean" one. (Actually the more likely explanation is that the 2000-using XP-haters and the XP-using Vista-haters are not the same people. Maybe the former group gave up and no longer cares about Windows.)