Above: The HP Envy X2 runs Windows 10 and a specially optimised version of Office 365. Photo courtesy Microsoft.

At the second annual Qualcomm Snapdragon Tech Summit in Maui, Hawaii, Microsoft Corp. and Qualcomm Chips along with hardware partners HP and Asus showcased the first, full featured Always Connected PCs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset running Windows 10 and a new, optimised version of Office 365.

Asus and HP worked hand-in-hand with Microsoft to deliver on pushing the boundaries of what a PC can do, and the company continues to work closely with Lenovo as they build their own Always Connected PC.

Instantly On, Always Connected and a Week of Battery Life is Liberating

This new Always Connected PC is ultrathin, beautifully designed, running Windows 10 and a new, optimized version of Office 365. But beyond the full experiences customers expect in a PC, this new Always Connected PC fundamentally transforms how consumers work, because of three significant advantages over other PCs.

1. The screen is instantly on and users never have to wait for the device to wake up.
2. Being always connected whether in a car, airport or coffee shop is the most natural, safe and secure way to work with teams and be creative.
3. Lastly, a week of battery life when mixing standby and moderate active use liberates users from always carrying power cords.

Always Connected PCs enable a New Culture of Work with Better Security at a Lower Cost

Always Connected PCs have three important benefits for organisations:

1. New culture of work: IT is always thinking about the culture of work they enable through the technology they choose: how a given device enables teams to collaborate and be productive. The Always Connected PC is a cultural shift, enabling teams to work effectively, whether they are on a corporate campus, visiting customers or on the bus commuting, freeing a real constraint on the creativity of employees today.
2. Better security: IT also must manage increasing security threats and is responsible for protecting an organisation’s information. Security has been a huge focus for Windows 10. But there are still these public Wi-Fi hotspots out there, which every day unknowing users connect to and could put hackers in control of the data coming and going to their device, potentially enabling hackers to steal corporate data and invade user privacy. The Always Connected PC is real security progress enabling safe connectivity everywhere, bypassing untrusted networks.
3. Lower costs: Today IT organisations are spending millions of dollars installing, updating and maintaining Wi-Fi antennas and repeaters throughout their buildings, and upgrading those every few years to make them even faster. At the same time, mobile operators have invested billions in building fast 4G networks. The United States alone is now 98 percent covered by 4G. And mobile operators have now embarked on even faster 5G network build outs that will be even faster.

Just like IT is now leveraging the massive investments in cloud compute and storage in datacenters like Microsoft Azure, moving networking to the cloud will lower IT costs. Today’s global mobile operators are professionally maintaining, managing and updating their networks with massive investments in speed and security. Always Connected PCs are key for IT leaders to unlock the benefits of this global networking and provide employees with a modern workplace they want at a lower cost.

With the introduction of the Always Connected PC, IT now must ask themselves: how can they leverage the public networks of Sprint, AT&T, Orange, and others – and reduce their investment in their private antennas – to give employees faster connectivity at a lower cost than they enjoy today.

For IT, the Always Connected PC enables a new culture of work, a real step forward in security and an opportunity for massive cost savings, as the local network moves to the cloud.