Microsoft aims to dominate in as many sectors as possible, and this is why it has such a wide array of products. Its current crop of PC products compete right from the high end Macbook Pro to the lowest Chromebooks. In fact, to take on this low end version, Microsoft has released a new operating system called Windows 10 Cloud. This new OS comes after multiple failed attempts in the form of Windows RT and Windows 8.1 with Bing, both of which didn’t take customers away from Chromebook or Macbook.

At this point, not much is known about Windows 10 Cloud, as Microsoft has decided to maintain a veil of secrecy around it. Some reports however suggest that this new operating system can be a simplified version of Windows 10, possibly one that could run only on Unified Windows Platform (UWP) apps installed from the Windows store. In this sense, it could be similar to the earlier ones – Windows RT or Windows 8.1 with Bing. Hopefully soon, we’ll get to know how similar or different it is from its earlier operating systems.

One thing that’s for sure is that Windows 10 Cloud has little or nothing to do with cloud. The name is misleading, and maybe with an intent to make users guess about its connection with Azure. Or it could be to keep tune with Microsoft’s policy of “cloud first.” A look into Microsoft’s latest earnings show that much of the profits are driven by the company’s cloud business, and maybe this name could reflect the rapid transition that Microsoft is making to become the leader in cloud computing.

Another theory is that this operating system will rely on Microsoft’s cloud services when using the hardware that ships with this OS. In other words, it means Office 365 for productivity, Bing for search engine, Cortana for help and OneDrive for storage. On top of it, Microsoft is expected to bundle its key services as default, including Bing, with an intent to keep customers within its own ecosystem of products and services.

Reports of this new operating system has been found by Windows sleuths and experts when they browsed through the latest builds. From these log files, we can make an intelligent guess about the due date, which could be on or before April 2017. Alternately, it can also be shipped along with the second planned update to Windows 10, that is expected to roll out later this year.

So, what is it that Microsoft wants to achieve through this product? Obviously, it wants to capture the lower end of the PC market, and want users to take to its product over Chromebooks. Experts opine that this is highly unlikely given that Chromebooks is already quite popular among people, and unless Microsoft offers something extraordinary in its Windows 10 Cloud, such a shift is unlikely.

Currently, reports show that Microsoft may either reduce the price of its Windows 10 Cloud systems or it may provide additional features such as a larger display for the same cost.

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