Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) recently released its latest version of its Windows operating system (Windows 11), and it has some pretty cool features. In this fool live clip, recorded on September 29Fool contributor Toby Bordelon explains what investors (and Windows PC users) need to know about Windows 11.
Toby Bordelon: Lots of news from Microsoft recently. Great news, Windows 11 will launch next week. This is an upgrade from what we thought and what Microsoft told us would be the latest version of Windows, Windows 10. Not so much, Windows 11 is coming. But that’s the good surprise. I think it was well received by Microsoft fans, a new version of the operating system here.
A big announcement regarding Windows 11 which arrived yesterday. I don’t think this is a big announcement. They just announced the implementation of something they have already alluded to. The ability to use Android applications on Windows. This will open up the ecosystem a bit and potentially offer a good solution to some ignorance problems. Let’s say I have a home automation system in my house, but there is no desktop version of the interface. It is only an application for smartphone. Well, now if I can use Android apps on my Windows desktop, I can actually handle this from my home desktop computer. It will just give more flexibility to Windows PC users.
The thing related to what happened yesterday is that Microsoft said, now we are finally at the point where we are opening Windows 11 to third party app stores. Now, you might remember the news, Apple just completed Epic’s iPhone App Store trial over a similar issue. Interestingly enough, Microsoft has announced the arrival of two of the first app stores in Windows 11. One of them is Epic, which I find interesting. The other is Amazon‘s (NASDAQ: AMZN) Android App Store, which is a way for them to get Android apps in Windows 11 through the Amazon App Store. It’s interesting to see that coming to fruition now just before launch. Looks like he’ll be there at launch.
Windows 11 is a free update. Microsoft says they won’t take any fees from these third-party app stores. They have nothing to remove from above, such as a Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) Where Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) Buzz for their app stores. It’s really not about making money directly with Windows 11 from consumers, it’s about expanding the ecosystem, improving the operating system, strengthening their dominance in the systems world. operating, because it is always a thing. The desktop operating system still exists, and it’s still something people use. It’s good to see.
The other thing we’ve seen recently for Microsoft is that we have new devices starting with Windows 11. I’ll show you some pictures here. You see this, some of the new devices that they announced. They have a new Surface Pro, they have a new Surface Pro X, a new Surface Pro Go, they have a new Surface Laptop. They got the second version of their dual screen Android phone, which is quite interesting. Lots of new stuff from Microsoft.
Last point, apparently Brian, I know you’ve probably seen this. Teams now has a phone function. You can integrate Teams with those VoIP desk phones you see in offices to compete with Zoom Phone. I don’t know why all these video conferencing apps suddenly decide to compete with desk phones for office workers. But here we are. That’s what they do and it’s nice to see some competition in that market, I guess. Maybe 2020 has been so dramatic we are all deciding, hey, let’s go back to 1990 and use the phones we had back then. But now you have options.
If you are a business that wants to integrate your video conferencing software into your phone system and you are using Zoom (NASDAQ: ZM) or using Teams, you can use either. It’s interesting to see that.
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