original”Five years later, Microsoft released the failed Windows RT again“Published in PingWest, author Wu Jiangfeng, INSIDE is authorized to reprint.
On May 2nd, at 21:30 Taiwan time, Microsoft held a conference in New York with the theme of “Learn What’s next?”
Without Surface Pro 5, Surface Book 2, and Surface Phone, Microsoft announced the new system we expected-Windows 10 S, as well as the intensively exposed Surface, equipped with Core i5 and i7, and available in four colors. Laptop.
This is an unsurprising conference. After the revenue of the Surface series of products has fallen for five consecutive quarters, Microsoft has launched a new system and new hardware that is fully targeted at the education market, in order to benchmark Google’s Chrome OS and Chromebook, Apple’s MacBook.
With the advantages of smooth operation, long-lasting battery life, and strong durability, Chromebook sales have continued to increase in the six years since it was released. In the first quarter of 2016, its shipments reached 1.65 million units, surpassing MacBook shipments in the US market for the first time, and it has become the darling of the education market.
Microsoft is probably worried that Chromebooks will start from dolls and will strongly penetrate the younger generation of users. Therefore, at this juncture, a product that is evenly matched has to be launched to fight against it. As a latecomer, can Surface Laptop achieve the top of the latecomer?
Surface Laptop focuses on the student market, starting at $999
Potential buyers who once worried that the Surface Laptop does not support touch can now rest assured. The display screen of this laptop is 13.5 inches, the ratio is 3:2, has 3.4 million pixels, supports Surface Pen stylus and ten-point touch.
Surface Laptop abandons the usual detachable keyboard design of the Surface series and is a traditional notebook computer. The four colors to choose from are cobalt blue, fuchsia, silver gray, and graphite gold.
The whole body is made of aluminum and weighs about 1.25kg. The thickest part is 14.47mm, and the thinnest part is only 9.9mm. It can be opened with one hand. In terms of interfaces, Surface Laptop has a USB interface, an SD card slot, mini Display Port, and a regular Surface power connector, but no USB-C interface.
It is worth mentioning that the surface of the Surface Laptop does not have any additional speaker openings, but is integrated into the keyboard.
14.5 hours of battery life is its key selling point. At the press conference, Panos Panay, the head of Surface business, claimed that Surface Laptop is better than i7 version MacBook Pro in performance and battery life, and even 50% faster than MacBook Air. Equipped with the latest Core i5 or i7 processor, the Surface Laptop is more guaranteed in performance.
Although Panos Panay has always emphasized that the Surface Laptop is designed for student users, its minimum price of US$999 (about NT$30,000) is not so commonplace. However, there is a new system built by Microsoft specifically for students-Windows 10 S. Users can also upgrade it to the professional version of Windows 10.
Is Windows 10 S a repackaged Windows RT?
Windows 10 S is a simplified version of Win10.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74kPEJWpCD4
Microsoft claims that Windows 10 S pays attention to smooth running speed and strong endurance. The point is that only users are allowed to install software in the Microsoft app store.
This is reminiscent of Windows RT launched by Microsoft in 2012-the most successful one in the Windows family.
Although now, Windows boss Terry Myerson promised at the press conference that Samsung, HP, Acer, Dell, Asus and many other manufacturers will launch Windows 10 S devices, and the starting price of these devices is only 189 US dollars; although, in the Microsoft App Store The number of software is different from the past, and Microsoft’s full set of office software will soon be available in the application store.
We still can’t help but question. After five years, Microsoft seems to have repackaged Windows RT and released it again. This time, can it come back to life?
Back then, the culprit behind Windows RT’s tragic elimination was that it could only run applications in the Windows Store. It is not compatible with standard Windows, which makes it impossible to develop the Windows RT tablet market.
Windows RT could not wait for Windows 10. After Microsoft only pushed an update package called Windows RT 8.1 Update3 for it, it abandoned it. In this update, a Windows 10-style start menu has been added to Windows RT.
Windows 10S is not a system developed specifically for the ARM architecture like Windows RT, which means that Windows 10S will be able to run on any ordinary computer. Even your Surface Book worth 50,000 yuan, but who would want to run a streamlined version of Windows on high-end devices?
If users are not used to downloading software in the app store, they can upgrade Windows 10 S to Windows 10 Pro version. For educational users such as students and teachers, the upgrade is completely free, while other users need to pay 49 US dollars (about 1,472 Taiwan dollars) for the upgrade.
In addition, for educational users, Windows 10 S supports the establishment of educational chat rooms to help students increase communication channels. Windows 10 S will also have a free built-in Office 365 Education Edition and a series of educational discounts.
This seems to turn the positioning of Windows 10S into a free trial version of Microsoft’s ecology, allowing those who have never tried Windows to enter the world of Microsoft through 10S. This makes people feel that if time goes back ten years, Microsoft may never dream of launching such a positioning product.
After all, who has never used Windows in that era?
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