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The Inside Story on How Microsof't Tablet Didn't Happen?

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Interesting article over on CNet (I'm still mad at them BTW!) about why there is no Microsoft tablet today.

In Tracy Kidder's book Soul of a New Machine there's a discussion about all the things that need to come together before a new computer actually makes it "out the door." Many of them have to do with internal politics; integration into existing product lines; and not cannibalizing other your other businesses. Few have to do with pursuing technical excellence, embracing innovation, or providing radically better products.

The following account (if in fact true) is a classic example of why the better mousetrap catches fewer mice.

(Answer = because it didn't get built.)

Link to full article here.

The inside story of how Microsoft killed its Courier tablet
by Jay Greene November 1, 2011 5:01 AM PDT



Steve Ballmer had a dilemma. He had two groups at Microsoft pursuing competing visions for tablet computers.



One group, led by Xbox godfather J Allard, was pushing for a sleek, two-screen tablet called the Courier that users controlled with their finger or a pen. But it had a problem: It was running a modified version of Windows.

That ran headlong into the vision of tablet computing laid out by Steven Sinofsky, the head of Microsoft's Windows division. Sinofsky was wary of any product--let alone one from inside Microsoft's walls--that threatened the foundation of Microsoft's flagship operating system. But Sinofsky's tablet-friendly version of Windows was more than two years away.

For Ballmer, it wasn't an easy call. Allard and Sinofsky were key executives at Microsoft, both tabbed as the next-generation brain trust. So Ballmer sought advice from the one tech visionary he's trusted more than any other over the decades--Bill Gates. Ballmer arranged for Microsoft's chairman and co-founder to meet for a few hours with Allard; his boss, Entertainment and Devices division President Robbie Bach; and two other Courier team members.
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