Patent shows new approach for foldable devices
Patents have shown that Microsoft has at least explored ways to build a new mobile device with foldable screens, but new evidence discovered today appears to suggest that the software giant has in mind more than one idea on how to make this happen.
While previously it was believed that the software giant’s project would essentially be based on two different foldable displays connected to each other by a new hinge allowing for several form factors, a new patent discovered today indicates that a different approach could be used.
A foldable device with a screen that’s both flexible and bendable shows up in a patent called “Flexible electronic display devices” and which Microsoft applied for in August 2016. The patent was published yesterday.
At first glance, the technology detailed here looks similar to what Microsoft has used already on the Surface Book, with the rather unusual hinge design supposed to protect cables and internals from physical damage.
But Microsoft explains in this patent that this new technology is a lot more complex, as in one example “a flexible electronic device includes a display unit having a continuous display area extending across a first section, second section, and transition section of the flexible electronic device.”
Expanding the system used on existing Surface models to new mobile devices developed by Microsoft and possibly launching under the Surface brand pretty much makes sense, and judging from this new finding, this could indeed be the case.
But as usual, patents can’t be considered living proof that a certain device is coming to the market, so for the time being, take this as just an idea to build a new mobile device that could at some point become real.
People familiar with the matter suggested that this new device could hit the market before the end of the year, while others believe the whole thing could happen a lot sooner, possibly in the spring.
