After Microsoft has ended its relationship with Nokia, much has been said about the company's next smartphone. Information circulated in the past that company intends to launch the “surface phone” in 2017.
But now it looks like Microsoft is trying to patent a device with a flexible hinge and display that would turn a phone into a tablets. Patent filings discovered reveal that the company is at least trying out this kind of concept for a future smartphone.
While Microsoft continues to patent thousands of inventions that to date many of them are not applied to end products, the context of this particular application is critical. The inventor is listed as Kabir Siddiqui. Microsoft is apparently trying to bring the Surface Phonand to the market this year, but the software maker has consistently avoided the traditional form factors for its Surface devices. SWould you want to avoid legal disputes involving the theft of intellectual property?
Therefore, this is unlikely to be the final project of the supposed Surface Phone, but the concept created for this device may provide some clues about how Microsoft has looked at the smartphone and mobile device segment after its withdrawal from the mobile market last year.
