How to close the project Microsoft Courier

Cnet journalists conducted interviews with 18 current and former Microsoft employees to find out why the Courier booklet computer project was closed in April 2010, immediately after the Apple iPad was released .

Preliminary information about the development of Courier was remarkably accepted by the press, even on Habré there were enough rave reviews. Even before the presentation of the iPad device from Microsoft was almost ready for production, announced its technical characteristics. They said that mass production can begin in a few months, and sales - in the III or IV quarter. 2010 What happened?

To begin with, the development of Courier was done by the Jay Allard department, a real “white crow” in the Microsoft camp, who had previously created a project for the Xbox game console and the Zune player from scratch. Allard himself is known as a mountain bike fan and a fan of Apple technology (he had nine iPods, and the working computer was the Apple G5). In general, it was strange to see such a figure among the top managers of Microsoft.
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So, at the beginning of 2010, Stephen Ballmer faced the question: to give or not “green light” to produce Courier. He hesitated because this Windows CE 6 device (like the Zune player) did not at all fit into the Microsoft ecosystem and the software development plan. After all, the company has invested heavily in the development of Windows Phone 7, the Metro interface, and the new Windows 8 OS with support for tablets has already been under development. According to Steven Sinofsky and other reputable managers, the Courier booklet was completely out of the line of future Microsoft products, in no way complying with the software development roadmap.

In general, to resolve doubts, Steve Ballmer turned to the most authoritative visionary whom he knew, that is, to Bill Gates. In the famous estate of Gates, they set up a meeting-presentation of the device, where Steve Ballmer himself came, as well as Jay Allard, his boss Robbie Bach (head of the Entertainment and Devices division) and two people from the Allard team. Participants recall the details of that meeting, which lasted several hours (the source of the information itself remains unknown, oddly enough, all 18 Microsoft managers who agreed to Cnet interviews put forward the requirement of anonymity).

They remember that Bill Gates asked to tell exactly how Courier is positioned for users. The problems began at the moment when Bill Gates asked a question, but how would Courier owners receive mail? Hipster Jay Allard responded that his team did not try to make another device for reading mail at all, that the tablet booklet would not be a replacement for a PC or smartphone and would not duplicate the Windows interface, but would become a completely new additional device, that its main purpose was content creation , the audience - creative people, such as architects or writers. “At that moment, Bill seemed to have an allergic reaction,” says one of the employees at the Courier development department. Bill Gates, in his characteristic style, questioned the logic and meaning of creating such a device.

The reaction of Gates can be understood, because Windows and Office bring the main money to Microsoft, and the Exchange mail server is the cornerstone that binds users together and keeps the integrity of the ecosystem.

Steve Ballmer listened carefully to the discussion and later made a decision. A few weeks later, the Courier project was closed, and a few months later, Jay Allard and Robbie Bach resigned , although both said their decision was not related to Courier.