At Microsoft’s Computex keynote here in Taipei, Roanne Sones, corporate vice president of operating systems platforms, detailed Microsoft’s vision for a modern version of Windows.
It includes, she said, enabling features, like seamless updates, security, 5G and LTE and sustained performance. Additionally, she pointed out that there should be delighting factors such as cloud connectivity, the ability to fit on several form factors, and inputs from pens, touch and even gaze.
To highlight these features, the company detailed some existing Windows 10 features, like cloud connectivity and Your Phone; machine learning and facial recognition; and Microsoft inking, which now has improved Asian character support for Windows and Office.
Microsoft is rumored to be working on a Core OS that works on foldables and other devices, but that wasn’t brought up at the keynote. (It exists, in some sense, already in the Surface Hub 2X.) Certainly, some new features will be needed for all of the folding and dual-screen devices we’ve been seeing the last few weeks. This seemed like Microsoft acknowledging the elephant in the room, but not naming it.
The company highlighted a few devices during the keynote, including the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1, Lenovo ThinkPat T495 and Asus ZenBook Pro Duo.
At the same event, Nick Parker, corporate vice president of consumer and device sales, highlighted some new devices and reiterated the goal of Microsoft working in both the cloud and edge computing. Rodney Clark, vice president of IoT and mixed reality sales, discussed benefits of cloud services and how businesses need to adjust their attitudes in order to embrace the cloud.
