Content Creation & Consumption: iPad & Courier

For Sean:

As new details and video’s of Microsoft’s Courier leaked for the second time last month, people started noticing – which is great – but people also started comparing it to the iPad – which is wrong – so I figured I would make my case as to why the two devices won’t be competing with each other.

This all comes down to two new terms in the world of portable devices, two terms that have become more prevalent due to the nature of the devices these manufacturers are releasing; content creation and content consumption. While is may not be totally black and white, I believe the Courier is geared more towards content creation, as highlighted in their video’s. The iPad, more toward content consumption, eveident from the material highlighted in Steve Job’s throne speech in January and also from the wealth of information posted on Apple’s own product page.

I’m not rooting for one or the other, I haven’t used either of the devices and information on Courier is scant to say the least – here goes.

Design Basics

The iPad is a slate (or tablet – a term everyone seems to have forgotten about) design, the Courier is a foldable, folio style device – obviously quite different, and visually it’s quite obvious what usage situations the designers had in mind when creating them.

The iPad is meant for causal use, it’s Apple’s take on the netbook and in world of Apple (and as Tested.com’s Will Smith would tell you) it pretty much is an Apple netbook. It’s meant to be used in the lap, casually – Apple doesn’t expect you to be doing any hardcore computing on this device because, aside from the fact that you probably couldn’t (can’t lay it flat on a table and without multi-tasking it just isn’t going to be as productive as an actual PC or Mac desktop/laptop interface) it’s a third pillar, not quite your laptop, not quite your desktop.

The Courier on the other hand is a book design, a very small book design (which according to Engadget measures only 5×7 when closed), meant to replace your note pad, day timer/anything you write on. It’s an ambitious concept and design, one which tries to get us to rethink how we use a touch based device – that admits that there’s still room for a stylus in our life if it’s doing something useful and replacing something we do on a daily basis.

The more you look at the physical differences of the two products, the more apparent the usage situations, something that the concept videos for Courier (located at the bottom of the Engadget post) and product videos for iPad, do admirable job of communicating.

Interface Fundamentals

The iPad uses a capacitive touch based screen, that only responds to the touch of a finger (due to its capacitive nature). The Courier uses some sort of hybrid resistive/capacitive screen that allows both finger and stylus (it looks like it’s going to ship with a pen) use. For a while, I thought that a company called TouchCo was probably supplying the screen tech, however in February the NYTimes reported that TouchCo had been bought by Amazon, supposedly to use the tech in their next Kindle. Now I’m not so sure, perhaps a licensing agreement or maybe Microsoft has it’s own thing going – in any case either it’s a hybrid screen or Microsoft has figured out how to get a pen input working on capacitive displays.

The interface on the iPad (something 99% of us are quite familiar with), similar to that of the iPhone/iPod Touch, is basically a big application launcher, with icons for programs that open one at a time, easy to get around, clean layout, nuff said.

The interface of the Courier borrows elements from Windows Phone 7 Series and Zune HD OSs’, which makes some sense since the it’s rumored to be based on the Windows CE kernel and run Tegra hardware (a la Zune HD) – anyways – the device clearly puts more of an emphasis on creation rather than consumption, in many cases, utilizing one screen for menu selection and the other as a notepad, scrapbook, journal, etc. To comment further would be to make stuff up as beyond the screen shots and the concept video’s, not much else is known.

Usage Situations

The iPad is positioned as a third pillar – for when the situation calls for slightly more than what your iPhone is capable of but not quite as much as your MacBook. It’s something that people would (largely) be stationary with, something to relax with, something that has a large enough screen to keep your attention longer and make usage over longer periods of time easier than your iPhone and makes relatively simple tasks like viewing your calendar or surfing the web easy and accessible (no start up time, easier viewing angle, simple access).

To me, the iPad, doesn’t come off as something one would easily use in a public setting. It’s size means you’re bringing a bag with you to hold it, it’s angular back means you won’t be using it on a table and it’s large on-screen keyboard says you’re not going to get any serious work done on it. But serious work is not what you’re buying this for (see above paragraph). The iPad is a simple, easy on device that makes accessing App’s, the web, play/purchase various kinds of media, view files and view my calendar/email – easy – in other words it’s a great content consumption device and definitely has a place in our lives (if you’ll let it in).

The Courier should be aimed at the “on the go” crowd, young professionals, people who have the bag space to store a small device that can replace their organizer or note pad and minimize the amount of times they have to use their phone or laptop in tandem with the device. In many way’s it comes off as being more of an evolution of the PDA than it does a derivative of a netbook or cellphone. Due to it’s size and appearance, this is not going to be touted as a “couch gadget”, something Apple highlights in every single ad/walkthrough for iPad; this is something you use while being productive and something that is focused on helping you complete tasks through out the day – it’s also something you would put down when you get home, as you switch to something like a laptop or tablet device.

The  Bottom Line…

The bottom line here is that these devices are not intended for the same usage situations. I’d be willing to bet that the idea of the two devices competing in the same space hasn’t crossed very many people’s minds but confusion is bound to happen to some. The iPad leans heavily on an App/Book/Music and Movie marketplace, features finger input that makes hand writing impossible and a keyboard that doesn’t look like it’s going to be very friendly when it comes to hammering out your next report. But that’s fine – it’s not supposed to be.

And with the very small amount of information we have on the Courier, it’s clear to see that we’re looking at a very different device, one that will be aimed at an entirely different demographic than the iPad and used in content creation heavy situations, where notes need to be taken quickly, content heavy emails can be created and sent on the fly and a second screen can be used as a viewable clipboard.

Personally, I can’t wait for both of the devices to hit the market, I want both of them and I think that there is a place for both in my life. So much innovation pouring out of Apple and Microsoft these days, I can’t wait to see what’s next.

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