It has long been said that “the cloud” would be the next big thing in technology after the Internet, the laptop, and then the mobile phone. It seems as if Microsoft has taken that to heart in their most recent announcement to produce the cloud version of their operating system.

The company affected most by this news isn’t Microsoft, it’s Google. Their Chromebook offering would be a direct competitor. As many analysts have gone on to say, the new Microsoft 10 Cloud system wouldn’t be as much about the cloud as it would be about pushing back competition from Google. Instead of being an entirely cloud-based computer, this new system would be about producing extremely low cost laptops that can use all the applications Windows has refined in their premium operating system.

The system will likely be a Windows 10 simplified to the point where it only runs Unified Windows Platform apps. These would include Cortana, Bing, Skype and more. This is a wholehearted attempt to capture the lower end of the market and push all their applications on the consumers at once. In a world where Apple and Google are two of the biggest companies ever, Microsoft needs to start finding innovative solutions to put them on an even playing field – but is this it?

There isn’t a lot of information out on the Windows 10 Cloud yet, and most of the information is based on speculation rather than hard facts. Rumours started when the system began showing up in recent test builds, and now industry insiders are saying that Microsoft intends to lower the licensing fee on the operating system in order to compete with Chromebooks.

It has already been pointed out that when Microsoft used a similar strategy to build the software for the Microsoft Surface, it did not fare well and was eventually left by the wayside. We can assume that Microsoft has changed the plan in some way, but at this point it is not yet clear how.

Microsoft has always been known for their aggressive ability to compete in business, and this is another case where they are going for the jugular and trying to knock Chromebooks out of the industry by offering a much lower cost alternative.