Microsoft wants and needs Windows to dominate as many mobile sectors of computing as possible. That includes the very low end where Chromebooks exist right up to the high end of the MacBook Pro. And it looks as though the low end is going to be catered for with a new version of Microsoft's operating system called Windows 10 Cloud.
We don't know exactly what Windows 10 Cloud is yet, and Microsoft is taking the line that "we have nothing to share." But ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley believes, based on her sources, that it's a new version of Windows 10 restricted to only running Unified Windows Platform (UWP) apps.
Such a restricted version could certainly be offered to manufacturers for a lower license fee, or even for free. But why call it Cloud? Well, that's likely because you'll be relying on Microsoft's cloud services when using whatever hardware the OS ships with. That means Bing for search, Office 365 for productivity, OneDrive for storage, and Cortana for help.
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There's no shortage of cheap laptops running Windows 10 Home on the market. You can pick on up for around $200 if you don't mind an 11-inch display that isn't Full HD, RAM limited to 2GB (4GB if you're lucky), and 32GB storage. But those laptops still have to factor a Windows license into the price.
Windows 10 Cloud could remove the license fee, meaning $200 laptops can ship with a larger display or more RAM. Or we could get the same products $20-$30 cheaper. In return, end users will have to deal with restrictions, for example, you may not be able to change the search engine away from Bing.
Whether this is what Microsoft plans has yet to be seen. We shouldn't expect to hear anything official about Windows 10 Cloud until April when the Windows 10 Creators Update is set to be released.