Microsoft expected to take on Chromebook and iPad in upcoming education-centric event

Microsoft is gearing up for its next major event of the year. The event has been tagged #MicrosoftEDU, and judging by the name, we’re expecting to see a number of education-centric products and services from the company.

When it comes to education and education products, it’s safe to assume that the primary market in most cases has always been the US and, to some extent, Europe. This area has been Apple’s domain for a long time, but Google’s Chromebooks have been steadily eating into the market.

Chromebooks are cheaper than Apple’s iPads and more flexible. Given their laptop form factor, they’re also more comfortable to type on than an iPad.

Microsoft doesn’t currently have a compelling offering at this level. Its services and software, such as Office 365 and software development tools, are available, but there’s no device to use these on.

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Keeping this in mind, and the fact that Microsoft has been developing an ARM-friendly version of Windows 10, we’re expecting to see a Chromebook-like device from the company today. The device is expected to fully support UWP (Universal Windows Platform) apps.

Given Microsoft’s increasing focus on cloud-services, we’re expecting to see some sort of cloud-service offerings specifically targeting the education space, this includes Office365 and OneDrive.

Unfortunately, nobody is expecting to see an update to the Surface line or Windows Phone.

Here's how you get updates

The event is scheduled for 7:00 PM India time and will be streamed live from here. Be sure to tune into tech2 at 7:00 PM as well since we will also be hosting a live blog for the event.