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Someday, Microsoft Will Have Its Own Foldable Smartphone, Too



Microsoft surprised tech watchers this week by joining Samsung and Huawei and unveiling its own foldable phone,

The Duo  was among a few new Microsoft Surface products that tech writers saw earlier this week in New York. Another was the slightly larger dual-screen Surface Neo (not a smartphone).

Oddly, the Duo is, at least from the promotion, the first foldable smartphone that soft-pedals the idea it’s a phone at all. Microsoft sort of just slips that fact into its description.

It says the Duo will “fit in your pocket” and “brings together the best of Microsoft productivity experiences, Android apps and Surface hardware design into a single device you can take anywhere. And, yes, it makes phone calls. It has two paper-thin 5.6-inch screens that unfold to 8.3 inches, and just like Surface Neo, it can be used in a variety of modes to let you work the way you’d like.”

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Microsoft left the cell phone business in 2017, so the Surface Duo constitutes a rebirth of that part of the business. But while Samsung has introduced its Samsung Fold but doesn’t really expect many people to buy it  for  a while -- it’s priced at $1,980 -- Microsoft said its new Surface Duo won’t really be on the market until the 2020 holiday season.

UBS analysts say they think Apple is working on foldable iPhone but it won’t be around until 2021.

Within the next few years, consumers will tell the world what they think of the folding smartphone. Right now, there’s no clear sign the public is clamoring for them.

Huawei CEO Richard Yu told reporters last month the hoped the Chinese company’s Mate X would be available beginning  some time this month. The controversial Huawei -- the U.S. suspects its phones of spying for China -- has a minuscule presence in this country, even though it’s the world’s third largest smartphone manufacturer behind Samsung and Apple.

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