Microsoft is reinventing itself with innovative products that looks behind the core of the company and maybe looks a bit like what rival Google has been trying to do for a while now. However, we don’t expect most of the new Microsoft announcements to come to India or work here, as the Redmond-based company hasn’t really looked at India as a market for products like Surface. For instance, while the super-intelligent Cortana has made its way to the PC, Microsoft’s voice-activated service is yet to make its way into the Indian market, at least not in a way users can use it out of the box. While you can get it to work in India, it has taken its time to be relevant for the Indian users. So we doubt if the feature on web will be available in India from Day 1. Interestingly, Microsoft seems to be pushing Cortana on the web like a replacement for the Start Menu. In fact, it seems to be able to do everything the Start Menu can. An Indian launch for the HoloLens, a unique headset that lets users view and interact with three-dimensional images, is also unlikely. None of the VR devices are available in India at the moment directly, with the exception of the may be the affordable Google Cardboard. It’s three versions old, but Microsoft has not yet brought in Surface to India. So it would be foolhardy to think they will do so for the larger, more expensive Surface Hub, a team collaboration device. The one thing that we are sure to get is the free upgrade to Windows 10. But don’t go ahead for a free upgrade if you are not sure whether you are running an authentic version of Windows or not. If you got a local PC guy to load the OS on your assembled desktop, the chances are you have no chance of an upgrade. However, for those who will get to upgrade free there will be a lot of new stuff on offer. The most exciting at the moment seems to be the new browser, given that it’s time someone got us to get back to Internet Explorer. The annotation feature is really cool, especially for those who still have to use Internet Explorer. For others, we have been doing this for a few years with Evernote and other apps. But with reports coming in that the Spartan browser will be different to Internet Explorer and will coexist with the latter in Windows 10, I think Microsoft will have a good opportunity to woo core users back from Chrome. Overall, while there are a lot of new features like continuum and universal apps, Microsoft seems to have lost an opportunity to awe its large user base with some cutting edge features.
