In 2019, widely known tech giants, Samsung and Huawei, launched
and came up with their first-ever folding devices, namely, the Galaxy Fold and
the X Mate. With the Galaxy Fold's launch blowing up in Samsung's face, it
entirely rattled the confidence of the global market in such products, and
further instantly rendered them way too experimental and ahead of time. The
next in line stood Microsoft with making a revelation in Q4 2019 that the
company would introduce the Surface Duo, a foldable smartphone, and Surface
Neo, a foldable tablet, based on dual displays in place of flimsy single
display folded in half like the Samsung's Galaxy Fold. Now, Microsoft will come
up with these innovations in Q4 2020 unless the novel Coronavirus outbreak
complicates the scheduling. Furthermore, as per various revelations found in
Apple's patents, the company, too, is working on possible future foldable
devices. However, it seems that Apple isn't in any rush for this trend as it
believes the technology keeps improving and evolving.
At present, the American multinational technology company Google
is also following the same technology and trend. The US Patent and
Trademark Office (USPTO) has quite recently granted the company a new
patent indicating that its Pixel smartphone teams have been diligently working
on a hybrid device of their own. The hybrid device favors a style with a pretty
large single flexible display that folds over. The single display device would
efficiently be configured as a smartphone, mini-tablet, or notebook, and
further bend over to maintain a tent position with the help of a multifaceted
hinge system.
As per the granted patent, Google's innovation outlines a foldable
device with an exemplary display, which includes a memory, a processor, the
first housing with a first hinge portion, the second housing, a flexible
display disposed on both the first housing and the second housing, and a hinge
assembly with a second hinge portion that is also rotatably coupled to the
first hinge portion of the first housing. The device will also include a mode
detector assembly, which will be configured for detecting the configurations of
the electronic device and generating a signal indicating a change of mode of
operation of the display.
In some cases, the flexible display can be folded or bent in such
a way that the two sides of the flexible display either face each other, which
is the closed mode or don't face each other, which is the open mode. Also, the
flexible display can be folded or bent in a way that the two sides of the
flexible display either face each other or be oriented away from each other at
a specific angle, which is the tent mode. Every mode represents a different
device, be it a smartphone, tablet, or notebook. Additionally, Google's patent
has stated that safe and secure applications may be given via the SIMM cards,
along with other pieces of information, including placing identifying
information on the SIMM card in a non-hackable way.
Somewhere around 80% of the patent covers information
corresponding to a complicated set of hinges for supporting the chameleon
nature of the device. Now, whether Google will eventually act on this
innovation or not stands unknown at present.
The USPTO officially published Google's patent on 31st March 2020.
The Patent Application was filed
on 23rd May 2019.
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