What if Microsoft competed with Samsung with a foldable screen smartphone ?

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Microsoft has always been interested in smartphones. In fact, its founder Bill Gates believes that if the mobile version of Windows has not succeeded in establishing itself in this market, it is because that at the time, Microsoft was distracted by the antitrust lawsuit it was embroiled in. Unfortunately, despite all the efforts of the Redmond firm, it failed to impose its mobile operating system, which it ended up abandoning definitively in 2019.

What if Microsoft tried its luck again ?

That same year, Microsoft introduced a new smartphone that, instead of using its own OS, runs on Android: the Surface Duo. Released in 2020, this device is unique in its kind since it has the same advantages as a folding smartphone, but is composed of two screens separated by a hinge. A second version was released in 2021, while the third version, according to rumors, was canceled.

However, Microsoft may not have completely abandoned smartphones since a new patent spotted by the site MSPowerUser suggests that the firm may have been thinking about a smartphone with a foldable screen. The document, published on October 1 by the US Patent Office, describes a device with a foldable screen whose hinge is capable of rotating 360 degrees.

Will Microsoft launch a smartphone with a foldable screen ?

Today, many smartphone brands offer this technology, to name just a few, Samsung, Google Pixel, Huawei, Honor and Xiaomi. Therefore, it would be logical that Microsoft would also offer a Surface Duo device with a foldable screen. However, for the moment, this is only a hypothesis. Indeed, the existence of the patent does not allow us to affirm that the Redmond firm will launch the product that is described in this document. Companies like Microsoft can have a significant number of intellectual properties that are never exploited.

• After abandoning Windows Mobile, Microsoft launched an Android smartphone with two screens linked by a hinge
• And a new patent suggests that the company's engineers are thinking about a product that would be equipped with a real foldable screen
• But for the moment, this is only a hypothesis, since the existence of this patent does not allow us to affirm that the product will be launched

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