The Courier concept is live and kicking but not from Microsoft

Microsoft sometime ago said the dual screen courier as a concept was not going to be into production. However it is clear that other manufacturers do not agree that dual screens devices are dead.

The dual screen Acer has already been spotted but there are rumours it has disappeared from the website.

The entourage dual screen device comes in two sizes. The A4 equivalent one we saw last year and a new A5 sized one. On both of these one screen is black and White with a journal for inputting notes. That screen also acts as an ebook screen using e-ink. It is a great way of adding links and info to your book by using the android screen to look up maps and directions or definitions or other information. Just click on the hi-lighted word on the left hand screen and the info is all to hand. The hand writing cannot be converted to text so that is a limitation to be aware of.

The right hand screen is a colour lcd screen which is an android tablet with the usual functionality.

NEC see the dual screen Market as important to the education sector and their dual screen device is only a prototype at the moment but it looks interesting as both screen can work together and independently.

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In CES the show is dominated by android tablets on every other stand so the dual screen models stand out.

The entourage model is already available to buy but it does have a chunky American style design. The NEC is slimmer and more elegant in terms of aesthetics.

To some extent the argument is will tablets take over from the ebook. There however are strong arguments that e-ink is more relaxing on the eye and certainly more condusive to sleep for nightime readers. The amazon Kindle has been a success and the companies are clearly gearing for a huge expansion of the ebook market with the units reducing in price substantially over the next 18 months or so.

The problem remains that eBooks are overpriced. Why pay more for the electronic copy than the paper book when shopping. This is being challenged by both the buying public and the authors who feel the publishers should be reducing their percentages as they no longer have the argument of warehousing, printing and shipping costs.

The Market will undoubtedly change and with Nooks move into the textbook market big changes will be interesting to watch.