Minority Report: Is Microsoft competing with imaginary Apple tablets?

Are Microsoft and Apple about to lock horns yet again, this time in the battle to reign king of the Tablet? Or, Seb Janacek says, is Microsoft fighting an imaginary opponent?

Hyper-reality was rife early this year after shrink-wrapped boxes of iPhone nanos turned up in Thai markets shortly after the Macworld conference.

They were produced in anticipation of the official launch of the iPhone nano. It was a launch that never came to pass, despite being widely predicted by Apple fans and Wall Street analysts alike.

Fast-forward eight months and there are even stranger rumours afoot.

It's a truth universally acknowledged that Apple and Microsoft are bona fide competitors again. Operating systems, touchscreen music players, advertising, retail stores, you name it.

Normally, I wouldn't cover this. After all, this is a rivalry stretching back decades, a fundamental dichotomy that underpins the industry and its culture - what more is there to add?

Even recent reports about Microsoft trying to tempt Apple Store employees to leave their stations at the Genius Bars, cross over and join its Guru Bars were not really compelling enough to cover.

However, news that Microsoft is bringing a new tablet to market was more interesting. According to recent reports, the Redmond giant is said to be preparing a dual-screen tablet codenamed Courier.

With reports abounding of the mythical Mac tablet being unveiled at the start of 2010, the timing can hardly be coincidental. Microsoft came late to market with the GUI, the MP3 player and the retail strategy. This time around, it's planning to get its retaliation in early.

If Courier is something more substantial than vapourware and if the video demo posted on Gizmodo is representative of any real product then there are indeed interesting times ahead (see here).

If real, it won't be the company's first stab at promoting the tablet computer. Microsoft founder Bill Gates first championed the Tablet PC back in 2001 yet the form factor failed to make any significant dent in the universe.

For years, I've had doubts over the tablet Mac. The most compelling reason I've found for Apple to launch a product with a similar form factor is based on something Steve Jobs said at the launch of the iPod in 2001. He said Apple had brought the now iconic device to market because no other competitor had nailed it. This is certainly the case with the tablet computer.

In a recent article I expressed further doubts. A reader comment below the article, by an IT architect called Ruprecht, suggested I may have missed the point.

"You start off by talking of how Apple take the existing and innovating it into the mainstream and then fall into the trap of describing the tablet experience of today rather than what the folks at Apple might do to it to make it compelling."

A truly excellent point and one well taken, Ruprecht. With the iPhone, Apple always liked to position itself five years ahead of competitors.

Now, reports of the tablet Mac abound each day. If Microsoft wants to win the race to market with the re-imagined tablet computing experience one hopes its crystal ball is well and truly polished.

After all, if a true tech visionary like Gates couldn't nail it, you suspect the current incumbents have even more of a challenge. Nevertheless, it's an audacious attempt to steal Apple's thunder.

The tablet form factor never really took off. If Apple doesn't reveal a tablet Mac, then the Courier project might go the way of its predecessors.

That's as long as if the rumour, based on another rumour, is true. It sounds like a duff movie trailer: the battle for tomorrow begins today.