San Francisco (AFP)
Microsoft presents it primarily as a tablet that "fits in the pocket", but the "Surface Duo" unveiled Wednesday by the computer group falls well on the smartphone, marking the return of the group in this market he had deserted.
The "Surface Duo" has two 14.2 cm (5.6 ") screens that fold up against each other, and is operated by Android, the operating system of Google, and not by Windows Phone, which Microsoft stopped development in 2017.
"You're going to talk about it like a phone, I understand that," said Panos Panay, product director at Microsoft, during the presentation in New York of the group's latest news for the holiday season.
"You can send text messages, you can write, you can do whatever you want, but this product is a + Surface +," he insisted.
From 2010 to 2017, the American firm tried to convince consumers to buy Windows phones, but it ended up abandoning this market, accepting its failure in this area against rivals Apple (iOS) and Google (Android) .
The "Surface Duo" brings together "Microsoft productivity, Android apps and Surface design in a single device that you can take anywhere, and yes, it can make phone calls," the statement said. group.
Microsoft also introduced the new cousins of its smartphone in the Surface range: a dual-screen tablet, laptops and headphones. All must be marketed before the end of the year, but the group did not say at what prices.
© 2019 AFP