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.

The CrunchPad tablet computing device will live to see production after all. Fusion Garage has renamed the tablet JooJoo and intends to launch on Friday December 11th at midnight.

The JooJoo will cost $499 and boot in 9 seconds (yes, nine) directly to a browser. The capacitive touchscreen is 12.1 inches and the only physical button on JooJoo is the power switch.

EnTourage plans to ship their eDGe in February 2010. The device features two screens, one e-Ink and the other an LCD. The device uses a stylus and is positioning itself as a direct competitor to Kindle and other readers.

Similar to Courier, it features two screens that fold together, dubbed a "dualbook" by enTourage. Retail price is expected to be $490.

Asus showcased a Courier-like dual-panel touchscreen PC at CeBIT this spring. The device is pictured below in a laptop orientation with a touch screen virtual keyboard on the lower panel.

Although it looks interesting, Engadget reports the device was not ready to actually be used. As seen in the photos, hardware and software is still in the prototype stage.

More graphics detailing the user interface of Microsoft's Courier have leaked to Gizmodo. The images show how touch-screen finger gestures and stylus operations interact with Courier's two glass screens. These images were likely developed in secret by Pioneer Studios, a division of Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices division.

Each journal in the library is fully customizable and searchable. The library button brings the user back to an visual index of all stored journals. Search terms are entered by writing with the stylus. Individual pages can be viewed with finger gestures.

According to CEO Steve Ballmer, Microsoft has no interest in developing an e-reader that would compete with other devices such as Amazon's Kindle. He claims the company already has a device for reading, and he says "it’s the most popular device in the world. It’s the PC."

That being said, Ballmer is known as a passionate supporter of innovation and we expect that the Courier tablet will be a game-changer nonetheless. Microsoft has released its own tablet-compatible e-reader software called Microsoft Reader.