Microsoft Gets an “A” for its Education Efforts (Premium)

Last year, I argued that Microsoft can't afford to lose the education market. Has the software giant made any progress since then?

You can find out about Microsoft's latest efforts in Microsoft Expands its Education Push with New Windows 10 PCs, Mixed Reality, and Office Updates. In that post, Mehedi explains today's education announcements, which run a pretty wide gamut and are tied to a major education conference in London. Here, I will try to put these announcements in perspective, in part by looking back at how Microsoft has been addressing the Chromebook threat in education over the past year, and up to and including the most recent developments.As you'll see, Microsoft has taken this threat very seriously.

They are wise to do so: As I pointed out last Spring, Microsoft cannot afford to lose the education market. And not just because it is a lucrative, enterprise-like market in some ways. Looked at more broadly, the education market has an even bigger impact on Microsoft's future because the battle for education is really a battle for the future. That is, students entering the workforce will expect to use what they’re familiar with. And increasingly, that includes Chromebooks and Google services, especially here in the United States.

Chromebooks are not a US-only phenomenon, of course. For now, Microsoft still controls the overall education market worldwide. And "Windows 10 is the global leader for devices chosen for K-12 education," Terry Myerson noted at last May's Microsoft #EDU event, a point that bolstered later in the year when Microsoft reported that it saw strong growth of Windows PC sales to the education market, in the US and elsewhere.

So what steps led to that success?

Some of it is just Microsoft's legacy: Teachers and school administrators are familiar with Windows, Office, and Microsoft's other traditional offerings. Some of it is basic market advantages: Office 365 for Education provides teachers and students with the full-featured Office desktop applications which are much more powerful than mobile apps on other platforms. Microsoft has also pushed into creating STEM lesson plans, improving the accessibility of its various offerings, and pushing into Mixed Reality and interactive whiteboarding.

But the firm knew it needed to do more, as Mr. Myerson expressed last May. Microsoft talked to teachers and educators, and they were told they needed a complete solution that can scale. That kids get distracted, and Windows needed to be more resilient, and offer a fast login time, not just the first time, but for an entire school year. Windows, in other words, had to match and beat the capabilities that Google was offering to education with Chromebook and its simple and centralized management capabilities.

And at that event, Microsoft announced the following initiatives.

Windows 10 S. This streamlined, simpler, and more secure version of Windows 10---what Myerson called "the soul of today's Windows"--...