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Несмотря на то, что была широко распространена информация о невероятно высоком спросе на устройство, вызвавшем его дефицит, наш HTC Mozart был куплен в первом попавшемся салоне-магазине МТС без каких-либо проблем и препятствий со стороны продавцов. По словам представителей МТС и HTC, на сегодняшний день ажиотаж вокруг новинки сохраняется, несмотря на то, что цена выросла до 13 990 рублей.
За 13 тысяч рублей HTC Mozart был удивительно хорошим предложением, даже несмотря на свою странную операционную систему, он предлагал достойные характеристики вкупе с удачным дизайном и хорошим дисплеем. При цене же в 14 тысяч рублей у устройства появляется намного больше конкурентов из стана Android (например, LG Optimus Black), и, помимо этого, он становится намного дальше от бюджетного Acer W4 Allegro, выходящего в конце ноября, отличающегося пусть и худшим экраном и пластиковым корпусом, зато обладающего ценой менее 10 тысяч рублей.
The Courier group wasn't interested in replicating Windows on a tablet. The team wanted to create a new approach to computing. The metaphor they used was «digital Moleskine,» a nod to the leather-bound notebooks favored in the design world.… Microsoft's top brass that Courier could be a revolutionary device that would define a new product category. The team put forward a vision that Microsoft could create a new market rather than chasing down a leader or defending an established product.
Заняв небольшую, но узконаправленную нишу, пусть даже убыточную, означает присутствие.
… как владельцы Courier будут получать почту
People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying ‘no’ to 1,000 things.
And it comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don't get on the wrong track or try to do too much. We're always thinking about new markets we could enter, but it's only by saying no that you can concentrate on the things that are really important.
When Courier died, there was not a single prototype that contained all of the attributes of the vision: the industrial design, the screen performance, the software experience, the correct weight, and the battery life. Those existed individually, created in parallel to keep the development process moving quickly.
Those prototypes wouldn't have come together into a single unit until very late in the development process, perhaps weeks before manufacturing, which is common for cutting-edge consumer electronics design. But on the team, there was little doubt that they were moving quickly toward that final prototype.
But an employee who worked on Courier said the project was far enough along that the remaining work could have been completed in months if the company had added more people to the team. Microsoft's Shaw disputes that.
«There was extensive work done on the business, the technology and the experience,» said a member of the Courier team. «It was very complete, not a whim.»
«It was not off-the-shelf tech,» said a Courier team member. «There is no commercial product today that meets the specs we had for it. It was highly demanding and innovative and no one partner had all of the pieces.»
Современной мобильной ОС (Windows Phone 7) даже еще и не пахло
ARM-версии десктопной Windows тем более

Ок, но тогда бы его разрабатывали еще год-два-три (или даже больше), а это опять же огромное количество денег, закопанных в разработки.

Как закрывали проект Microsoft Courier