Microsoft "Andromeda" = Surface + Courier + Phone?

The hottest buzz right now in Windows land is the supposed Surface Phone.

We’ve had a few patent applications emerge that show some kind of foldable device that will remind everyone of the never-to-be Courier project they worked on about 5-6 years ago. That device was almost way to futuristic for the tech at the time, but it may be possible now.

The big thing is that MS has introduced full Windows x86 running on ARM. That would allow you to have a Windows PC in a phone-sized device will all-day battery life. It also adheres to the idea that MS isn’t going to go head-to-head in the smartphone arena anymore, but they see their opportunity on the peripheries. Mainstream consumers won’t want it, but sure as hell enterprise and hardcore geeks are interested.

Now performance is the big issue, but it’s sounding like this is coming next year, so MS could be targeting next year’s ARM chips, as well as the current Windows Core OS project. That’s to make the OS fully modular so they can strip out everything they don’t need for certain platforms, making it faster.

Based on the patents, the result could very well look like this.

This does look interesting.