The unveiling of Microsoft"s new Courier booklet device prototype by Gizmodo today got a lot of people excited; whilst this is great news, there may be more announcements to come, according to CNET. Sources have told them that the Redmond software company has a few more prototypes baking in the oven, though it"s unclear whether or not they"ll see the light of retail shelves.
The project, led by executive J. Allard, has been working under high confidentiality; Microsoft even moved the team away from the main campus on Redmond, apparently, to keep things under wraps. This meant that even those working at Microsoft were surprised at its existence, though it still stands the chance of not even coming to the market. It"s expected that it will, though, as Microsoft founder Bill Gates long wanted to have an official tablet-like product sold with the company brand on it.
Microsoft Research originally worked on the project nearly a year ago. The originaly concept involved pairing two OQO models to make a booklet mobile computer. You can see the original concept idea for this in the video below. Thanks to Manan for the tip.
If there are other products being developed under secrecy, don"t expect them to be unveiled any time soon... if Microsoft really is determined to keep things quiet, then they"ll definitely tighten security after the Courier was shown earlier. Of course, this could also be a marketing technique to draw some focus away from the rumored Apple tablet. Either way, the future of Microsoft is very interesting.