Microsoft Reportedly Prepping Windows 10 For Influx Of PCs With Folding Displays
According to sources within Microsoft that spoke with The Verge, the company is committing a lot of resources not only into supporting future devices that will incorporate innovative display form-factors, but also will be producing its own first-party Surface hardware that will include some of the same design trends.
Microsoft has long been rumored to be developing a dual-screen device codenamed Andromeda that will be marketed under the Surface brand. Surface chief Panos Panay has even teased the development of such a device in the past, and called Andromeda one of his pet projects.
“It’s absolutely my baby,” said Panay in October. “We will invent and we will create when products are right. We can’t bring new categories into the world and not be a place where customers need it.”
Although Panay didn't confirm that such a device would eventually make it to market, he added, “I think there’s a lot of new form factors that are coming in the future."
10.0.18313.1004 (rs_shell_devices_foldables.190111-1800) https://t.co/Cw9g6i1Zz6 pic.twitter.com/NdclR2E0PR
— BuildFeed (@buildfeed) January 14, 2019
While it's possible that we may eventually see hardware like Andromeda from Microsoft -- and similar devices from third-party manufactures -- there has to be built-in support in Windows 10 to accommodate these devices. To that end, The Verge says that Microsoft continues to refine ifs Composable Shell (C-Shell) to support devices with dual/folding displays. References to folding devices was found in the latest build of the next major updates for Windows 10 (19H1).
It appears that 2019 will be the year of folding displays in the smartphone realm with devices like the upcoming Samsung Galaxy F, and it looks as though Microsoft is laying the foundation for PCs to leverage this same amount of flexibility for users.
