An Apple for the teacher... or time to open up some Windows?
It takes more than revenue to succeed in the technology industry. There's also something called relevance. In recent years, that's been something Microsoft has sorely lacked. At least until now. Not only does Microsoft seem to have found its relevancy footing, it seems ready for a while new fight.
In recent months, Microsoft has made it clear that it wants to own the creative market. That's a market that has traditionally been owned by Apple. Products such as Windows Creative and devices like Surface Studio showed Microsoft was serious.
Microsoft wasn't just content with targeting creatives, though. At their last event, the company set its sights on education as well.
Forget music. If anything is part of Apple's DNA it is education. An entire generation grew up with the Apple ][, Oregon Trail, and Reader Rabbit (formerly owned by Shark Tank shark, Mr. Wonderful). Another generation, the iMac.
Today, Apple in education is under siege, though. On the low-end, Google is hitting hard with Chromebooks and services-as-software.
Now Microsoft is re-joining the fray. There's a new Surface Laptop that could best be described as the retina MacBook Air Apple never shipped. It's not just beautiful, it comes with Windows S, a version of Windows that would bring all the traditional benefits of Microsoft's desktop but with iOS-style security, including being lock-downed to the Windows Store.
A number of Microsoft's partners will be shippings Windows S devices as well. They'll be as cheap as a Chromebook but with a lot more horsepower. Certainly a lot cheaper than an Apple device, including iPad.
Google may still have an ace-in-the-hole, though: Those aforementioned services-as-software. Talking to several principals and superintendents, more and more often I'm hearing it's the Google cloud that matters to them the most.
We'll have to wait and see how it all shakes out but one thing's clear: Microsoft might have lost the phone battle but it's getting ready for a whole new chapter in the personal computing war.
Reader comments
Microsoft might have lost at phones but it's battling back in the classroom
I think the success of Windows 10 S rests on Microsoft's ability to get the apps that people want in the Windows Store. The announcements over the last couple weeks look good, but they have a long way to go.
That's one thing that always gets them in the end. Microsoft failed at making it into the smartphone market because of not having a robust App Store. I don't see why they would want to push people to use the service again if they haven't really made any improvements.
Owning the creative market is all hype. Tech journalists fawned over the Surface Studio, an overpriced underpowered device.
Microsoft sold 15,000 of them to date. Hype machine anyone?
We work with many creatives at several agencies. NONE has any interest in this device.
Apple's lack of commitment to the education and Pro marketplaces show the real weakness of their strategy. They have abandoned these "fringe" markets with their special needs in order to sell to the broader, more general (but higher-end) consumer marketplace with iPhones, iPads and MacBooks.
Yet, it was the education and Pro markets that kept Apple going in tough times. Now, they're seemingly willing to just give it away to Microsoft and Google.
Maybe the increased competition in the Education and Pro markets will cause Apple to rethink their strategy, but in the meantime, it looks like Windows 10 S and Chrome OS are here to stay.
Microsoft will lose in the classroom too. Mostly to Google.
google take them all down in the class room, price is just great and works fine.
I think 10S has some amazingly disruptive potential! I love the concept and I'm very excited to see what it does and where it goes.
I'm one who uses devices and services from all three of the major players in the game, obviously, Apple, Microsoft, and Google, and I think anyone who is both self-honest, and non-delusional will at least admit that all three have some incredible strengths as well as incredible weaknesses, and that it's just completely unfitting, dishonest, inaccurate, ignorant and juvenile to simply say "X rocks, and Y sucks". I hope we can all agree at least that far, and can also agree that anyone who would say such a thing can be instantly and entirely dismissed from the conversation. I hope we can at least all have this much of a consensus.
Once upon a time, I had the insane ambition of trying to completely immerse in all three at once and just switch off back and forth as the mood hit. Well, I think I may have to abandon those goals perhaps, but I still want to maintain at least some connection to all three worlds, and stay reasonably abreast to what's going on in all of them.
That said, more and more, I just keep finding myself becoming more and more of a Windows guy. Other than Phone, which has admittedly been a disaster*, speaking in VERY general terms, Microsoft just seems to be doing everything right of late, and the wind seems to be totally at their backs.
I mean, whoever thought Microsoft, and Windows would be "cool" again? But they are? They totally flippin' are - as are all the amazing products they're releasing, some of which even completely changing the game by way of inventing new paradigms! And Windows 10 has gone from being this mess of a thing to being this amazing platform that only promises even bigger delights in the very near future!
Though I've always been a "Both" guy when it comes to Windows and Mac - and I still am - historically, that's always been from a "pro-Mac" or "Mac first" perspective. Well, I've gotta say it guys, for the first time ever, that is no longer true! I'm Pro-Windows now.
In fact, even though this decision is probably three or four years away yet, and who knows what will happen between, when it comes time to replace my Mac Mini, I'm not entirely sure I will - possibly opting instead for a second DIY custom build Windows PC like what I use upstairs for gaming, only with a stronger CPU and weaker GPU to emphasize multimedia production over gaming at a similar price point. Unless Apple does something really disruptive with the rumored new modular Macs, I might find myself going "Windows only - by choice" for the first time ever!
Though I certainly -WANT- Mac in my life, I guess I have to face the hard reality that unlike with Windows, I'm not sure that I can really still say that I feel like I -NEED- Mac in my life anymore. And I feel that is much less about some kind of failure on Apple's part, and much more about amazing success on Microsoft's part - and Win 10 S, I think, will be a very big part of that story.
Cheers!
*=while I freely admit the miserable failings and current sad state - on the very brink of death - of Windows Phone, unlike Gartenburg, I'm still not quite ready to completely rule it out or write it off.
I tend to be more in line with the Jason Ward school of thought on the matter, seeing a distant but significant ray of hope in 2018 or even 2019 with some form of so-called "Surface Phone" (some other paradigm shattering, category defining device that is every bit as much "not a phone at all" as it is "totally and completely a phone") toward which he feels (and I agree) that all the following current day initiatives are eventually leading us towards: Win10S, Win10 ARM, Continuum, Centennial, and C-Shell.
While Windows will not be a consideration for me at all in my personal fall 2017 phone upgrade plans, which will be fought between iPhone, Pixel, and Galaxy (currently on iPhone) I do hope that I may be able to make the jump to "Surface Phone" at my next upgrade in 2019. Ultimately, it's where I really want to be, even if I will not be considering it at all for this go around.