Two would-be Microsoft-based competitors pre-emptively bit the dust yesterday — both Microsoft’s own Courier and HP’s Windows 7 Slate are no more, and it’s fairly safe to say a third, Fusion Garage’s JooJoo, is being kept alive on life support for now. all this follows 500,000+ opening week iPad Wi-Fi sales for Apple, and comes on the eve of the iPad Wi-Fi + 3G release.

Courier was never made manifest beyond some animated concept movies showing off a dual-screen, notebook-like device with innovative UI and finger and pen-based input. The video was promising enough to wow the tech world but at the same time set expectations incredibly high for software that didn’t exist. That could have been a factor in the cancelation, along with the realities of trying to sell a device whose price-point would literally be double the iPad’s. Gizmodo, who broke word of the Courier’s existing, also tolled its end:

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 HP Slate was less vapor, more ware, and was even given the Ballmer-bump during the CES 2010 keynote in an effort to show up Apple. The idea of an extra chunky Intel tablet running a desktop OS like Windows 7 probably appealed to power users, and to HP until about a minute after they bought Palm. TechCrunch has heard through sources that the Slate is no more. We’re betting the timing is no coincidence and HP re-announces a much more mobile-friendly, webOS based Slate in the future.

Oh, and Engadget says the JooJoo is being updated.

[Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget]

Apple might be preparing a 10.7″ multi-touch iTablet with 720p resolution, running the iPhone OS, for announcement in January and release in May/June 2010. That’s just one of the rumors dropped by iLounge this morning, from a source they say was accurate about the most recent iPod nano, iPhone, and Chinese iPhone stories.

Like the iPhone and the iPod touch, iLounge’s source claims both a 3G and non-3G version will be available, so users can weigh always-on connectivity vs. another monthly telco bill.

Apple is no stranger to big product announcements in January, but since exiting Macworld, they’re also now free to set their own schedule. Possible delays? Odds of it receiving the official “b’okay” from Steve Jobs in its current form are said to be 80% (after it already being nixed at 7″ for being “too small”). That’s good, but far from certain.

Also far from certain, but certainly interesting is Microsoft’s equal and opposite tablet concept — the Courier, which focuses not on media but on journaling. Gizmodo has another video up. It reminds us of those awesome, future-filled Bill Gates keynotes from CES. Most of what Gates demoed hasn’t made it to market, however. Hopefully the Courier will fare better.

People are used to phones, they’re used to MP3 players, laptops, desktops, even set top boxes. A decade later, there’s no indication of tablets breaking through into the mainstream, so Apple, Microsoft, and everyone else has their work cut out for them.

We’ll see if the iTablet can tell a compelling enough story, and offer a feature set that sells.

While everyone is waiting on Apple to unveil their universally rumored iTablet/iPad device next year, Gizmodo has just scored the scoop on what Microsoft just might be planning to counter it — the “Courier” tablet.

Decidedly un-Apple in it’s approach, with dual booklet screens, pen and touch input, and feel that’s all organized chaos, it’s also strikingly different to Microsoft’s previous Tablet PC efforts (which were largely tweaked versions of XP and then Vista). Here’s why:

Until recently, it was a skunkworks project deep inside Microsoft, only known to the few engineers and executives working on it—Microsoft’s brightest, like Entertainment & Devices tech chief and user-experience wizard J. Allard, who’s spearheading the project. Currently, Courier appears to be at a stage where Microsoft is developing the user experience and showing design concepts to outside agencies.

Head on over to Gizmodo to see a video of the concept in action (not iPhone friendly, sorry). Then come back here, tell us what you like and don’t like, and let us know how you think Apple’s take on the tablet will differ.