Is Moorea Microsoft’s "Killer App" for Tablets?

Many geeks still mourn Microsoft’s stillborn Courier project. For those that don’t remember, the Courier was a small, dual screen, hinged tablet that Microsoft officially killed off in April 2010 before releasing. The hardware is dead, but ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley thinks some of the software might live on in Office 15. Some supposed leaked screenshots of Office 15 include a new app codenamed “Moorea,” which Foley thinks looks similar to an application seen in leaked Courier videos.

Foley asks “If Moorea brings this interface to life, maybe Microsoft will position Moorea as a ‘killer app’ for the coming Windows 8 tablets/slates?”

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Here’s a screenshot of Moorea, which is described as an application that lets you store multiple types of media in one place. It looks kind of like a multimedia OneNote with the Metro interface.

And here’s a Courier video:

Others think it looks more like Microsoft Office Labs’ Canvas for OneNote, seen here:

Personally, I think Moorea does look more like the Courier app than Canvas, but all three could be related. What do you think? It will be interesting to see how the product, assuming the screenshots aren’t a hoax, is branded. Will it keep the OneNote name, or be a new product altogether?

Microsoft has stated that Windows 8 will be available for tablets. The Windows Phone and Windows 8 desktop operating systems are expected to converge into Windows 8. Matt Rosaf at Business Insider has some interesting thoughts on why Microsoft is pursuing this strategy instead of making a Windows Phone 7 tablet: a WP7 based tablet would likely cannibalize sales of Windows 7 licenses, and Office licenses by extension. “Ballmer would be crazy — and possibly legally liable to shareholders — if he approved any strategy that knowingly cannibalized those two businesses,” Rosaf writes.

For more on expected features of Windows 8, see our coverage.

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