ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley reports that the company has been touting the benefits of Always Connected at its WinHEC conferences in Tapei and Shenzhen. “A ‘modern device,’ now, to us, is an Always Connected PC,” said CVP of Windows Server Erin Chapelle. “It’s still important to talk to consumers, but the future opportunity ahead is commercial.”
The Future of Enterprise
At the same time, Microsoft seems to be shifting its definitions a little. Foley says that while the company initially considered the devices as a new category, it now sees the functionality as something OEMs should be building into a high percentage of laptops. As well as ARM-based PC’s, which offer extremely long battery life, Microsoft also considers ones with Intel processors and LTE ‘Always Connected’. The idea is a world where, with growing cellular coverage, it can offer networks as a service. Despite this, the company is still making small marketing efforts in the consumer space, recently publishing a consumer-focused web page. On it, Microsoft explains the difference between SIM and e-SIM, and touts the possibility of ‘Gigabit LTE’. With the rollout of 5G coming, such devices will only get more powerful, but Microsoft’s lineup is yet to catch up with its plans. Though the Surface Go is slated for an LTE release this year, many other Surface products aren’t, including the Surface Laptop 2.
