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Is Microsoft Building A Foldable 'Surface' Phone? (hothardware.com)
"This past week, Microsoft received a new patent for a foldable handset, and once again there are rumors that it is related to the long awaited, mythical Surface Phone," writes HardOCP, noting Samsung and LG are also rumored to be working on foldable phones.
An anonymous reader quotes Hot Hardware:
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella made it clear that he doesn't want to kick out just another run-of-the-mill smartphone that looks and functions like every other device out there, but one that is unique in some aspect... This is not the first time Microsoft has filed a patent for what could be a folding Surface Phone. Just two months ago it was discovered that Microsoft filed a patent for a "Mobile Computing Device Having a Flexible Hinge Structure"...
Microsoft's patents include curved edges "intended to draw light away from the gaps, which would create an optical illusion of one continuous image," according to the article. "In this way, Microsoft could create a folding phone with multiple active displays appearing as a single, continuous image."
Microsoft's patents include curved edges "intended to draw light away from the gaps, which would create an optical illusion of one continuous image," according to the article. "In this way, Microsoft could create a folding phone with multiple active displays appearing as a single, continuous image."
It damn well better make the "communicator sound" when you open it!
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
I know, Microsoft could call their amazing new foldable phone the 1996 Motorola StarTAC.
They've fought for years to get market share, but even with a competitive product it's still only gone down. Microsoft just isn't cool enough for people.
That looks a lot like what happened to phones before the iPhone arrived. Everybody put the same functionality into "innovative" form factors and tried to make phones into fashion items. It looks like Microsoft has no ideas for a better phone, so they'll add needless ornaments, like hinges and bevels. Swarovsky "crystals" in 10, 9, 8...
Where have I see this before?
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
I'm sure there's earlier prior art than 2016, but I'd be very interested in a foldable tablet slash phone, assuming they could ever squeeze everything in there.
Just stop already.
Give me what I really want.
Intel, ati graphics, g2 to g5 lte, 5 days battery life, 2-3 usb ports, and a dock so I can plug it in and use it as a desktop with full featured Os.
There's going to be an amazing Microsoft patent, so that anyone who actually makes a foldable phone has to pay Microsoft.
1) A foldable design where, when it's closed, the display is on the outside. When it's open, the display size doubles on the inside. :-)
2) A way to run Android Apps, virtualized, as well as whatever MS has in their store. Without that, the phone is DOA in my opinion. I want to be able to run any App I want regardless of OS.
3) 5 day battery. If it was a double size flip phone you could have a separate battery in each half, essentially doubling the battery size and life. Yes it's going to be heavier but a 5 day charge cycle is killer
4) A way to project the image on to a wall, like a projector. 4K would be great.
5) A way to wirelessly connect to your cable box (or Roku, or Netflix, or whatever) to access and display content. If you can do that who needs a TV set?
There you have it Microsoft. I anxiously await your first prototype.
Is Microsoft Building A Foldable 'Surface' Phone?
Does anyone still care?
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Dang, at this point I dunno if Microsoft releasing a holographic phone would do much considering how late to the game Windows Mobile, 10 or whatever they are putting there is.
Don't get me wrong, I had a Windows Mobile phone (Lumia 1020)... but what's the point of it if it's only going to have outdated, abandoned or replacement apps that are always going to be behind the curve when it comes to functionality?
Possible route for success, at least on the enterprise side, is keep it up with Continuum and make a phone that carries full Windows 10 that works well as a phone, but can also be used as a light desktop. They have to go a similar route Blackberry did in the past, and at this point with intrusive ads, telemetry and other crap they are shoving into Windows 10 I'm not sure Microsoft is even capable of going that route.
and nobody cared?
I've got a surface for work – and I really do not like it.
It doesn't have enough CPU power to be a real laptop, the built-in keyboard is just awful, and the battery life is stunningly short.
There's some basic functionality for the laptop/tablet arena that they just don't have down yet. Half the time I try to suspend, it stays awake. Once it finally does sleep or hibernate, I have trouble waking it up about 10% of the time. There's been a few times I would pound of the keyboard and the power button – with no signs of life – and about five minutes later it would magically turn itself on after I gave up.
Hard to get excited about cool new features when you don't even have the basics down.
Even bell bottom jeans keep coming back into fashion.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
As a nerd who is insistent on trying out the myriad of this-and-that technologies, I had a Windows phone a couple years ago. It was a fairly high end HTC device. While the interface is unique, the more I began to use it, the more it became obfuscated. It reached a point where it went from fairly cool and useable to finding myself lost on my own phone. Here I speak of the tiles and such. One thing I have noticed over the years, is that the elderly, who expect and do much less with and from their phones than myself, seem to have become the dominate user base. And yes, I do peek over shoulders just to see what platform different demographics are using. For me, Windows phone lasted a good couple months before going back to Android. I do not regret the experiment. But whatever they are planning with this surface phone, it had better be.... different in a good way.
I will say this: I have a Windows 10 tablet. It is running a quad-core Cherry Trail with 4 gigs of ram. Quite simply, it is the best tablet experience I have ever had. It has a "tablet mode", but just using regular old Windows 10 on a tablet is pretty nice.
Disclaimer: I own several tablets and they all have their uses (security cameras, persistent weather info, etc...) but my next favorite tablet is my Amazon Fire. It is simply the best for content consumption. It plays in my shop all day. I do not expect this post to be popular.
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Normal phones don't have enough wear and tear. So Microsoft's big idea is to let people fold and unfold it, so the user will eventually break it and they'll have to buy another.
unique != better
Is Don't care building A Don't care 'Don't care' Don't care?
There's an old saying that whenever a headline on the internet is a question, the answer is "no".
But it's not true.
In this case, the answer is "who cares?"
"Is Microsoft Building A Foldable 'Surface' Phone?"
Who gives a shit what Microsoft is dabbling in this month?
If they ever manage to launch it and it fails to penetrate the market like their last 50 attempts at a phone, they'll discontinue it, fire the teams, and move on to the next clusterfuck.
Besides, Samsung is already demoing some foldable phones that look quite interesting. If I was going to bet on Microsoft or Samsung in the phone market, I'd bet on Samsung every time. People actually use their phones.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Have gnu, will travel.
Any new phone Microsoft make will fail.
Most people can't see past Windows DESKTOP lockin, but they sure as hell walk elsewhere for their phones.
I mean, who wants MS desktop level telemetry ON THEIR PHONE??
it may look continous but would touch work there. kind of a neat way to do a clam design for smart phone though. be cool to see the details and the way they design it.
The Windows phone users want this bad.
Both of them.
Microsoft is getting all the niggles out of a universal OS across tablets, PC's, Consoles and phones right now. Sure the phones are taking the hit at the moment and the rest of the business is taking up the slack. But, they are gambling on getting everything integrated, usable and ubiquitous before everyone else as a result. Will it work... Dunno. But it's not a stupid strategy so long as most employers still use windows machines by the time they get it right.
Microsoft, of all the companies out there, has a long, long history of vaporware, promising time and again a product they either never really planned to deliver or they delivered so late that you'd have been better off buying the competing model. Which is essentially what they want to keep you from doing: Don't buy Brand X now, because MS has the same product out Really Soon Now (tm).
If they ever delivered, then usually by buying out Brand X as soon as they were on the verge of bankruptcy because people waited for MS to deliver.
Sorry, MS, I don't care anymore what you announce. Put up or shut up.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
A serious question - what kind of phone do you have?
I have known one person who had a Windows phone. One. I don't know anyone anymore who has a blackberry. Well, my son does. It's my old one from work that I had 5 years ago, he uses it as a pretend phone. Everyone talks about physical keyboards, but I could do no better on that than I can on my Android phone.
I would actually love for there to be alternatives. And I think that is what we have with Android. Not alternative OS, but alternative providers. Who provides Windows phones? Who provides iPhones? See the difference? Now if Google takes Android fully into their castle, that is when alarms should sound.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
There's not going to be an amazing new Microsoft foldable phone.
There's going to be an amazing Microsoft patent, so that anyone who actually makes a foldable phone has to pay Microsoft.
...which will be the Jitterbug phone for old folks, and ..who?
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
Q: Is Microsoft Building A Foldable 'Surface' Phone?
A: Probably yes. But they will not build a second unit, due to their current market share of 1 device.
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