The new Surface Duo. (Microsoft Photo)

The new Microsoft Surface Duo — the surprising foldable device powered by Android that marks the tech giant’s return to the smartphone market — is not quite Microsoft enough for some fans.

Just a few days after the unveiling of the new device, which isn’t coming out until the 2020 holiday season, a petition popped up on change.org asking for a Windows-powered version of Surface Duo. Microsoft revealed a new operating system, Windows 10X, to power the new foldable tablet/laptop hybrid Surface Neo. And the petition wants that operating system expanded to Surface Duo as well, making it a true successor to the beloved, but ultimately failed, Windows Phone.

“The newly announced Surface Duo running Android ONLY does not accomplish what many windows UWP developers and Microsoft fans want,” according to the petition. “We want a Surface Duo device that runs the new Windows 10x OS and that emulates Android apps.”

The petition had a approximately 1,150 signatures as of early Monday morning, with a goal of getting 1,500.

Microsoft’s past flameout in the smartphone market is well-documented. Windows Phone gained a cult following, however it failed to capture enough of an audience to challenge iOS and Android.

Microsoft wants to avoid that issue this time around by partnering with Google to bring Android to the Surface Duo. The tech giant is betting not that it can become a dominant player in the mobile OS category, but that its hardware teams can design a better foldable phone than rivals like Samsung and Huawei.

The petition, which appeals directly to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and product chief Panos Panay, urges the company to bring Windows 10X to the Surface Duo to create a version of the operating system that works across all platforms. Without a Windows mobile operating system, the company hasn’t been able to accomplish that, according to the petition.

“Because there are many developers still out here that want to write Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps that run on all form factors. When UWP was announced you promised one code base to run on any form factor … including phones and other small form factor “pocketable” devices,” according to the petition. “Many developers, both on the consumer and enterprise sides of things, still really, really want to target small form factor devices with UWP, it’s just that there doesn’t exist any since you killed Lumia!”

Microsoft has slowly moved away from Windows as the flagship of the company in favor of cloud computing and other fast-growing businesses. However, Microsoft did recently note that there are more than 900 million devices on Windows 10, and the lineup of new and refreshed gadgets displayed at the big Surface event last week is sure to give that number a jolt in the coming months.

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