Don’t expect to see the rumored folding Windows computer any time soon. In fact, Microsoft might have cancelled the device code named Andromeda.
This would have been small enough to be pocketable, but then unfold to become a tablet about the size of an iPad mini.
Information supposedly leaking out of Microsoft calls it a “new pocketable Surface device form factor that brings together innovative new hardware and software experiences to create a truly personal and versatile computing experience.”
Andromeda would have run Windows, possibly on an ARM processor. Like all the Surface line, it would support a stylus. Unlike the smartphones with foldable screens that are in development, Microsoft’s offering uses a pair of displays that with a hinge that allows them to touch.
This isn’t all just rumors and speculation. Microsoft received a patent (PDF) last month for a small, dual-screen computer. David Breyer’s images at the top and bottom of this article are based on drawings from that filing.
Microsoft Andromeda on the rubbish heap?
Two noted Microsoft watchers, ZDnet‘s Mary Jo Foley and Tom Warren from The Verge, report being told by unnamed sources that this project is at least delayed.
So like @maryjofoley I’m hearing Andromeda is definitely not coming in 2018. OEM devices may come, but not with Andromeda OS as it’s not ready. The entire project is now under review because there’s no app ecosystem to support it
— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) July 6, 2018
The code necessary for Andromeda isn’t being built into the next version of Windows 10, according to Foley.
Worse than that, she reports “there’s still no compelling reason for Microsoft to come to market with its current iteration of a small, dual-screen mobile device.”
Warren indicates, “The entire project is now under review because there’s no app ecosystem to support it.”
Whether it’s cancelled or just delayed, don’t expect the Microsoft Andromeda to be released this year, despite earlier rumors.
That could leave Samsung the first to get a folding computer on the market. The Galaxy X is supposedly coming in the first half of 2019. Apple’s foldable iPhone isn’t expected until 2020 at the earliest.
Photo: David Breyer
Update: This article was updated on July 8 with information about the patent Microsoft received last month for a dual-screen handheld computer.
