Microsoft had a huge event in New York this week and it was all about going back to school. Yes, you heard me right. They had three important announcements and it was all related to education and college students. More importantly, they are now taking the competition to Google and Apple. You might be wondering where I’m getting at. But you’ll know soon. Google understood the untapped potential in the education market and their inexpensive Chromebooks have created a huge revolution. They’ve grown 50% in comparison to the last year and the Chrome OS has a market share of 58%. Also, most of the university students opt for a MacBook due to its extraordinary battery life and fluid like performance. So, what is Microsoft’s answer to Google and Apple?
This post consists of three sections and each section will cover an announcement made by Microsoft. The first announcement is the launch of their brand new lightweight operating system, Microsoft Windows 10 S. Windows 10 S is very similar to the Chrome OS and is a light weight OS which targets the students. Users will be able to make use of the apps present in the Windows Store similar to the Chrome OS which has stripped down version of popular apps on it.
The next announcement is more of a substantial one. This is with regard to their brand new Surface Laptop. It is a $999 sort-of ultrabook which is aimed at university students. Personally, I love the looks of the device but the $999 price tag only gets you a 7th-gen i5 processor along with 4 gigs of RAM and 128GB SSD storage. The top variant goes all the way up to $2,200 which, I think, is a bit too much for a laptop powered by Windows 10 S. The 13.5-inch PixelSense display with a resolution of 2256×1504 should be brilliant. The ultimate selling point of the Surface Laptop is its 14.5 hours of battery backup which is 2-3 hours more than the MacBook. According to Microsoft, the new Surface Laptop is faster than a MacBook Pro but lighter than a MacBook Air.
The last announcement was in regard to a few new features for Microsoft Office. One particular feature that would be very helpful for students with dyslexia, is the reading aloud of text and separating the words into syllables. Other features include special features for the visually impaired and Microsoft’s Chief Executive, Satya Nadella, said that he wants to provide for all kinds of students. A special education teacher in Canton, Lauren Pittman, said that her students found some of these features extremely useful and made a world of difference for them. Hopefully, Microsoft has everything under control and will create a ripple in the coming months.
Source – WashingtonPost
