The company announced the education- focused show, Microsoft EDU, last month and since then speculations have been made that a slew of software and hardware products could be unveiled at the event. Going by the popular belief, we do not expect any new Surface device or even the alleged Surface phone coming out of Microsoft’ vault today. As per previous reports, the company seems to be eager to aggressively target the education market and to compete against Google. Here’s what you can expect from the event.
Windows 10 Cloud OS
Microsoft is expected to launch Windows 10 Cloud OS, a scaled-down version of the regular Windows 10. According to earlier leaks, the Cloud OS is said to run applications from the Windows Store only. Seen as Google’s Chrome OS rival, the new OS by Microsoft should boot fast and be easy to manage while not compromising on battery life.
Last month, a leaked document from Microsoft’s presentation suggested that a Windows 10 Cloud OS would not require high-end machines and still deliver fast and efficient performance. If this happens, Windows 10 Cloud OS could be a worthy competitor against Chrome OS which is widely popular among students for similar reasons.
Alongside the Windows 10 Cloud OS, Microsoft might launch its own hardware running the stripped-down OS. The Microsoft’s Windows 10 Cloud OS notebook, conveniently dubbed as CloudBook, is seen as rival to Google’s Chromebook. Being the educational market its target, Microsoft would have to get its pricing right without compromising on quality to strike right chords with users.
As per the leaked document from Microsoft’s presentation which tipped of minimum hardware requirements for Windows 10 Cloud OS, a decently powered hardware offering an all-day battery life and a quick 20-seconds boot-up time could be made official by the company. While we do not have a clear picture of what the device would be like, some reports suggest that it could be a low-end version of Surface notebooks.
Education in focus
If Microsoft’s’ pattern is to be followed closely, the company has made itself focussed on certain areas. Earlier, the company went official with Surface Pro and Windows 10 Creator Update, both targetted at creative professionals. This time again, the company has its eyes on the users who are into academics.
While Microsoft’s Office, Minecraft, OneNote and 3D Paint has been extensively used in education, the company is expected to introduce new products. ‘Microsoft is also obsessed with pushing giant screens for productivity, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see some type of whiteboard technology or hardware like the Surface Hub being demonstrated for school environments,’ The Verge notes.
Microsoft Office to go the web way?
For years, Microsoft Office has been played an essential role in lives of professionals and students. Now, when Microsoft seems to go head-on against Google, it is also reportedly eyeing to extend its products in a bid to go further than just Chrome OS and Chromebooks.
While the company already has made web-based versions of Microsoft Office suite available against Google Docs, the company might make a full version of Microsoft Office suite available on Windows Store. This is quite likely to happen since the Windows 10 Cloud OS is only limited to apps from Windows Store.
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