Windows For Internet Of Things, Devices With Displays Under 9″ Free

At its BUILD 2014 conference today Microsoft announced a new move which it hopes will aid in increasing the Windows market share. The company has said that it is going to offer Windows for free on devices with screens under 9-inches, that includes phones and tablets. This comes on the heels of a recent decision to cut Windows 8.1 licensing fee by as much as 70 percent for certain OEMs, to flood the market with relatively affordable tablets and notebooks aimed at taking down the Chromebook.

Recent reports also suggest that Microsoft has been experimenting with either a free or relatively low cost version of Windows 8.1 with Bing. The version includes various Microsoft applications and services geared primarily towards Windows 7 users. It is not known if the new free version comes as a result of those experiments, Microsoft is simply calling it “Windows for Internet of Things.”

At the conference Microsoft also announced plans to allow developers to develop universal apps that would be compatible with both Windows and Windows Phone. The feature is destined for Windows 8.1 as well as Windows Phone 8.1, which will be released later this summer. Microsoft finally unveiled Windows Phone 8.1 today, and also showed off its very own digital personal assistant named Cortana.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Computers
Tags: build 2014, Microsoft, Windows