On Monday at its Ignite conference for corporate partners, Microsoft unveiled four new Windows 10 S laptops from Acer, HP, and Lenovo, together with a new shorthand for the services they'll provide: Microsoft 365.
The new Windows 10 S machines will be sold to such customers later this year, and all cost less than $350. They're part of the cadre of low-cost Windows 10 S devices that Microsoft showed off at the introduction of Windows 10 S last year. Contrary to that event's educational bent, however, these machines are being positioned as business PCs for what Microsoft terms "firstline workers" but might better be known as "front-line" workers—the staff you meet on support lines or at service counters, who interface with the public.
Yeah... good luck with that.
The whole point of Windows 10 S was that it worked for slightly less powerful, but also less expensive, student laptops, so the fact that Microsoft's hardware partners couldn't get product to market in time the Back To School season was a huge miss. It's not surprising that both Microsoft, and their partners, would want to try to salvage something out of that debacle.
But 10 S has received terrible reviews, pretty much across the board, for being basically impossible to work with in a normal office environment due to its lack of apps, and enterprises have been slow to switch to Windows 10 generally, in part because they don't want to buy new hardware and might need to. Whether Microsoft will be able to sell them on Windows 10 migration by way of new (and underpowered) laptops is still an open question, but it seems unlikely.
And I get the feeling that Microsoft also thinks that it's unlikely, which is why they've just published this new "roadmap" which shows the better Windows 10 SKUs that your 10 S installation can be transformed into:
If Windows 10 S is only interesting because it can be turned into the Pro or Enterprise versions, which haven't proved all that interesting to enterprise customers, either, then I have to wonder who Microsoft think they're pitching this to, especially since the first crop of Windows 10 S laptops aren't all that interesting as laptops. Who is this for?
The whole point of Windows 10 S was that it worked for slightly less powerful, but also less expensive, student laptops, so the fact that Microsoft's hardware partners couldn't get product to market in time the Back To School season was a huge miss. It's not surprising that both Microsoft, and their partners, would want to try to salvage something out of that debacle.
But 10 S has received terrible reviews, pretty much across the board, for being basically impossible to work with in a normal office environment due to its lack of apps, and enterprises have been slow to switch to Windows 10 generally, in part because they don't want to buy new hardware and might need to. Whether Microsoft will be able to sell them on Windows 10 migration by way of new (and underpowered) laptops is still an open question, but it seems unlikely.
And I get the feeling that Microsoft also thinks that it's unlikely, which is why they've just published this new "roadmap" which shows the better Windows 10 SKUs that your 10 S installation can be transformed into:
If Windows 10 S is only interesting because it can be turned into the Pro or Enterprise versions, which haven't proved all that interesting to enterprise customers, either, then I have to wonder who Microsoft think they're pitching this to, especially since the first crop of Windows 10 S laptops aren't all that interesting as laptops. Who is this for?