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Microsoft Patent Hints At Foldable Tablet Design For Surface Phone (trustedreviews.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the two-in-one dept.

A new patent has surfaced from Microsoft that may shed some light on the company's upcoming Surface Phone. The patent, which was first filed in October 2014 and recently made public, details a 2-in-1 foldable device with a flexible hinge that can act both as a smartphone and a tablet. TrustedReviews reports: The device in the filings can be configured into various shapes, either folded out like tablets, or folded back inwards to create a smaller phone-like handset. There's also the opportunity to place it in a tent-mode much like Lenovo's range of Yoga hybrids which can be propped up to make it easier to watch media. Microsoft has taken a universal approach to Windows 10, in that the OS is designed to work across multiple devices, so a Surface Phone that could transform into another mobile product would make a lot of sense in terms of demonstrating Windows 10s capabilities. The inventor of the product in the patent is listed as Kabir Siddiqui, the man behind Microsoft's successful patent for the Surface kickstand and Surface camera angle -- which bodes well for this latest design in the long run. Unfortunately, there's every chance we'll never see this technology in a retail-ready product from Microsoft, though some version of the foldable device could well arrive.

3 of 26 comments (clear)

  1. Not the first ... by PPH · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... Microsoft entry into the phone market that has folded.

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    Have gnu, will travel.
  2. Fool me once... by grasshoppa · · Score: 3, Funny

    How many times does Microsoft plan to "enter the market"?

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    Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
  3. Back to the future all over again... by kaizendojo · · Score: 2

    So I guess everybody forgot about the MS Courier concept introduced in 2009 (Video is from 2010 but Gizmodo broke the Courier story in September 2009, posting leaked pictures of what the device might look like and how it might work):
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
    And in typical MS fashion, a project that would have beat Apple at their own game and create a new device/market was killed in it's prime because it threatened Windows.
    http://gizmodo.com/5855260/the...
    So the question now is whether it's still novel enough and whether they will still force it to run some kind of Windows instead of the GUI that the Courier was meant to run. Knowing MS culture and history, I wouldn't play those odds.