Microsoft’s Courier More Impressive Than Apple’s iPad

Microsoft beat Apple to the race and presented its Courier awhile back, but most of the media still focused on Apple’s January 27th event, when the iPad was eventually demonstrated. Despite the ambivalent reception from observers, Apple stocks rose 8 points yesterday when it informed the public of the iPad’s ship date. I, for one, am far more intrigued by what Microsoft has in the pipes than Apple, even though I am a firm devotee to the latter.

Engadget’s video look at the Courier has me a bit agog, and I have not been into Microsoft stuff since the Zune HD. From what we are told, the Courier will be tiny: 5 x 7 and under 1″ thin when closed. At this size, the unit will be a true portable, unlike the iPad, which is a home device with its large dimensions. Having two touchscreens also allows the Courier to display a high number of overall pixels while keeping each panel small. Microsoft’s demo highlights some key functional advantages of having multiple displays, one of which is using the entirety of a screen for the touch keyboard. Then there is the tasty NVIDIA Tegra 2, which is a duo-core ARM Cortex A9 –about twice the power of the Apple A4 chip in the iPad.

The only questions left to be answered are, first of all, price, multi-touch quality (which Apple rules), display resolution and type (OLED would be possible if the Courier is expensive), and just how good Windows Phone 7 will be. Yes, Microsoft wants everyone to buy into its closed technological ecosystem - Xbox, Zune Phone, Courier, Windows PC - but so does Apple (and reportedly, Sony too). The question is which company consumers are willing to side with. Based on the Xbox 360 and Windows 7 prosperity, Microsoft has tens of millions of users already committed.

If the Courier can bundle acceptable multi-touch, a pair of good displays, and an OS that is not embarrassed by iPhone OS 3, then Microsoft has the killer gadget that people thought the iPad was going to be. I can foresee most businesspeople flocking to the Courier, while Apple loyalists will choose the iPad. For everyone else who wants a very powerful tablet, there seems to be only one choice, and that is the Courier.