Microsoft has announced they will not bring the Courier dual-screen tablet into production. While this may be disappointing news, everyone following the story can breathe a sigh of relief that the project wasn't just a group hallucination. In shutting down the prospects for Courier's public release, Microsoft definitively confirmed its existence. We may never know how close the real Courier came to matching those slick renderings revealed seven months ago.

Frank Shaw, Corporate Vice President of Corporate Communications, made the official Microsoft statement to Engadget: “At any given time, we're looking at new ideas, investigating, testing, incubating them. It's in our DNA to develop new form factors and natural user interfaces to foster productivity and creativity. The Courier project is an example of this type of effort. It will be evaluated for use in future offerings, but we have no plans to build such a device at this time.”

The Microsoft Careers JobsBlog had something to say about the Courier tablet. Namely, that it was "the upcoming Courier digital journal." The title of the post, credited only to username JobsBloggers was "Microsoft innovation back on top with Natal, Photosynth, Courier and more." Courier and more?

As soon as word spread that the post "confirmed" the imminent release of Courier, the original blog post was edited to remove all references to the secret device. Earlier this month Courier rumors picked up steam when Stefan Weitz, a Bing search team director tweeted a link to photos of the device found on Engadget. He stated, "Welcome to the epic. New shots of our new Courier product."

Additional Microsoft Courier photos and video have been leaked to Engadget along with details on the dual-screen tablet. The device is said to be in development by a top secret Microsoft team in the Entertainment and Devices division.

Although no pricing information has surfaced, "trusted" sources have told Engadget the Microsoft Courier will launch in the second half of 2010. The device, previously rumored to be running on Windows 7, will instead use the same OS as the Pink, Zune HD, and Windows Mobile 7 Series.

The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Microsoft has a secret team working on development of the Courier dual-screen tablet. The company is also seeking ways to undercut Apple's iPad pricing with the HP slate running Windows 7.

Referring to Courier, the report stated that "although early designs leaked onto blogs last year, it's unclear whether the company will introduce the gadget." Bill Gates, former CEO of Microsoft, made news recently when he responded to the iPad keynote.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced a tablet computer this week at the 2010 Consumer electronics show, however it was a far cry from the Courier. Ballmer referred to the device as a "slate PC" and announced that Microsoft would be partnering with Hewlett-Packard on the product.

The tablet will run Windows 7 and support multi-touch. Pricing is said to be under $500 and the device should hit shelves later this year. Response to the Microsoft tablet was underwhelming, as many had hoped for a Courier prototype unveiling.

More details of Microsoft's Courier tablet have been leaked to gadget blog Gizmodo. Like previous videos and photos this concept animation was produced by Pioneer Studios, a division of Microsoft Entertainment and Devices.

Microsoft is said to be at a late prototype stage in product development where they've begun to show Courier concepts to outside agencies. This video shows an in-depth depiction of how one might use the dual-screen device to work on a collaborative project. The highlight of the video is Pagestream, the heart of the user interface.

The first video showing the user interface of the Courier tablet was leaked to tech blog Gizmodo this fall. Pioneer Studios, a division within Microsoft Entertainment and Devices, developed the concept. The device is said to be in the late prototype stages and consists of two seven-inch screens that respond to gestures and a hand-held stylus.

As seen in the video clip, Courier features endless screens for handwriting, photo taking and copying excerpts directly from the web dubbed the Infinite Journal. Moving content between different applications is fluid and seamless.