Windows 10 Cloud, Explained (Premium)

Microsoft is expected to formally unveil Windows 10 Cloud at a press event in early May. But there’s no need to wait on the rationale for this release, as the software giant just quietly explained its strategy.

As a recap, rumors of a new Windows product version, or SKU, called Windows 10 Cloud emerged earlier this year. Despite no official word (or confirmation) yet from Microsoft—heck, even the name could change—we actually know a lot about this release already.

Windows 10 Cloud is a new Windows 10 product version aimed at the future trajectory of the product line. Like Windows RT before it, Windows 10 Cloud can run Windows Store apps, but not legacy (Win32/.NET) desktop applications. Unlike Windows RT, however, Cloud is not a dead-end street: You will be able to upgrade to Windows 10 Pro (at least) if Cloud’s functionality isn’t enough for you.

Many have speculated that Windows 10 Cloud is Microsoft’s Chromebook competitor/alternative, something that is aimed at low-end PCs—let’s call them Cloudbooks—that will be pushed mostly in education. But that is only half the story: Microsoft also intends for Windows 10 Cloud to be sold with high-end premium PCs, and expects there is a market of customers who will simply prefer the reliability, security, and performance of a PC that is not dragged down by legacy code.

Windows 10 Cloud has nothing to do with ARM. It will not be an ARM-only version of Windows, and it will be available, over time on both x86/64 and ARM platforms.

Windows 10 Cloud is not about a subscription version of Windows, as many have long feared. Yes, the name is terrible. Yes, I’m sure Microsoft has reconsidered it many times. And yes, it’s even possible that this name is incorrect.

Except for one thing. That name isn’t as terrible as you may think. And that’s where the explanation for this product comes into play.

If you listen to Windows Weekly or the other podcasts in which I participate, you may have heard me openly wonder about the rationale behind Windows 10 Cloud. Here’s Microsoft, with its Windows Store apps platform (called Universal Windows Platform, or UWP) failing all around it, and what it’s about to do is release—wait for it—a new version of Windows that can only run those apps? This makes no sense.

And to reiterate, it really does make no sense. There is no version of this story in which Windows 10 running only Windows Store apps makes sense.

But Windows 10 Cloud won’t only run Windows Store apps. It will also run web apps. And while that seems semi-obvious on the surface—Microsoft Edge is sort of a Store app and it is the foundation on which web apps run in Windows 10—we just learned something very important about real-world Windows 10 usage. And this fact helps explain why Microsoft is making Windows 10 Cloud.

And it goes like this: Windows users already spend more than half their time on the web.

Think about that. Windows users, who have access to a Win32 application platform that is the basis for over 16 million desktop applications—including heavy-hitters like Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Office, and Apple iTunes—spend over half of their time on the web. That means they spend less than half of their time on those legacy applications we’re all so obsessed by.

Left unsaid is the seismic shift that is happening here. Which isn’t so much that Windows users are using web apps, but that their usage of web apps is increasing over time. This is something I’ve observed, and written about and discussed, many times: My own usage has shifted to include a mix of web and desktop applications. (Like most Windows 10 users, I bet, I use no Store apps on a regular basis.)

This puts Windows 10 Cloud—the product and the name—in perspective.

I’ve been arguing in recent days that the future of client-side applications is, in fact, progressive web apps (PWAs), and not Store apps, even on Windows 10. And this product in some ways confirms that, since PWAs in Windows 10—wait for it—will one day be available in Store app containers in the Windows Store. In Windows 10, PWAs (web apps) won’t just work. They’ll work better than they do elsewhere because they’ll be able to integrate with the underlying OS in interesting ways. Just like Project Centennial (Desktop Bridge) apps do today. Embrace and extend, baby.

So while I’ve been (virtually) banging my head against the wall trying to figure out why Microsoft would make the same mistakes it made with Windows RT again, with Windows 10 Cloud, I needn’t have worried: That’s not what this is about. That is, Windows 10 Cloud isn’t a solution looking for a problem. It’s a response to the usage trends that Microsoft sees with actual Windows users.

And you gotta admit, when you look at this confusing product with that perspective, it all starts to make sense.

I know you have other questions about Windows 10 Cloud. I know there are other concerns as well, including how much it will cost to upgrade to Windows 10 Pro, and how Microsoft can possibly communicate this thing without alienating customers. We’ll get to that: The May event isn’t that far away. For now, you can at least rest easy knowing that Microsoft isn’t jumping the shark here, as many of us had feared.

I know, it’s crazy. But Windows 10 Cloud may actually make sense.