Full FeedMicrosoft’s Courier has a stylus problem
Microsoft let Gizmodo tell the world about their latest prototype Courier, a tablet booklet no one saw coming. After checking to make sure this was not the first of April, I can tell you this looks to be legit: Microsoft has been working on a host of tablets and this one apparently looks the most promising. The tip off that this is a real Microsoft project and ultimately why it won’t get to market: the stylus.
Windows Mobile has been endowed with a stylus since the dawn of time. This is Microsoft’s way of saying to the computer, “I am sorry I have fat fingers.” Microsoft continues to view the human digit as imperfect and incapable of directing the beautiful hardware sitting under the screen. And yes, this is why Microsoft will fail with tablets.
The Courier is an impressive design. Gizmodo describes the Courier as, “the dual 7-inch (or so) screens are multitouch, and designed for writing, flicking and drawing with a stylus, in addition to fingers. They’re connected by a hinge that holds a single iPhone-esque home button. Statuses, like wireless signal and battery life, are displayed along the rim of one of the screens. On the back cover is a camera, and it might charge through an inductive pad, like the Palm Touchstone charging dock for Pre.”
The genius of the iPhone isn’t the touchscreen—they’ve been around for ever. The genius was allowing your fat finger to make the thing work. Microsoft employed styli on their phones that made the experience odd, uncomfortable and if you lost that darn stylus (they sold them in 3 packs, you know), then your device just became unmanageable. Apple designed around the finger while Microsoft continues to apologize for it.
Artists and designers will, no doubt, tell me I am off my rocker. Sure, Microsoft could sell a boat load to they who love the stylus, but for the mass market, a stylus just won’t cut it. They should have seen this with the Surface table: no special do-hickeys needed to make the experience complete. Heck, you can put a drink down on it and it recognizes it.
By forcing users to revert back to a stylus for entering text, the flow of thought is interrupted. Flicking and swiping is great but doing so with a stylus in your hand is not idea. Until Microsoft works around the parts we can’t lose so easy (like fingers) this project won’t get off the ground and if it does, it will make Apple’s tablet all the more amazing when/if it shows.
Read [Gizmodo]
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Check your fly, your bias is showing.
on September 23, 2009 at 09:52 AM - LINKHow are you supposed to do handwritting recognition w/o a stylus?
Writing with your index finger just won’t cut it. Especially if you go to legitimately sign something.Not unless you want your signature to look like “it was written by a four-year, old in crayon, with the R reversed”.
I freely admit my bias: I hate styli. I am tired of MS trying to get me to love them. Count Palm in too, but palm realized this and made up for it.
My handwriting skills have decayed to a point where no recog program is going to decipher it. The only time I put ink to paper is where there is an “X”. I recall graffiti trying to get me to make letters just so, look where that ended up.
I just don’t see a stylus being the data input method of choice.
on September 23, 2009 at 10:16 AM - LINKOf course, the other option here might be Bill Gates’ long prophesied speaking interface….you know where you have a conversation with your computer over a cup of coffee, watching a game, during a commute, after sex, etc.
on September 24, 2009 at 06:11 AM - LINK