Windows PCs push back against Chromebooks in schools

Microsoft to launch PCs with 4G LTE SIM cards

Life

Image: Microsoft

Microsoft and its partners, including JP.IK and Positivo, are launching new ‘Always Connected PCs’ for education in conjunction with T-Mobile, which will supply the laptops with 4G LTE SIM cards.

The two ‘PCs will be built around undisclosed Qualcomm Snapdragon chips. Many more education devices that Microsoft and its partners plan to announce at the BETT 2020 show in London next week will be based around Intel’s Gemini Lake Refresh chips, an update to 2017’s Gemini Lake processor for low-cost PCs. Those PCs will offer up to 46% more performance than their predecessors, according to Intel and Microsoft.

In education, the battle lines are starkly drawn: though the education market was once dominated by Apple Macs and then iPads, Chromebooks quietly have pushed those aside. In the meantime, Microsoft has tried to elbow in, with some success.

Data surrounding who is buying what in the education market is not all that easy to come by, however, with FutureSource Consulting publishing somewhat intermittent reports. In 2018, Chromebooks captured 35% of the worldwide education PC market, and 60% in the US, which takes up 85% of all Chromebook shipments. Worldwide, Windows captured 40% of total shipments. Microsoft hopes to increase that share.

IDG News Service

Read More: Chromebooks Education PCs Qualcomm Windows