Microsoft on Monday debuted a new category of personal computers with AI capabilities as it seeks to incorporate emerging technologies into products across its business and compete with Alphabet Inc. and Apple Inc.
At an event at the company's Redmond, Washington, campus, Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella introduced a PC that Microsoft is calling “Copilot+” and said it will be sold by the company and a range of manufacturers, including Acer and Astec Computer.
Microsoft is selling the laptops as its stock hovers near all-time highs following a Wall Street rally driven by expectations that AI will drive strong profit growth for the company and its Big Tech rivals. Released.
The new computers, which can handle more artificial intelligence tasks without relying on cloud data centers, start at $1,000 and begin shipping on June 18.
Microsoft introduced a feature called “Recall” that lets users find files and other data they've viewed on their PC, even if it's just a tab open in a web browser. The company also demonstrated its Copilot voice assistant acting as a real-time virtual coach for users playing the video game “Minecraft.”
Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft's head of consumer marketing, said the company expects to buy 50 million AI PCs over the next year. He said at a press event that a faster AI assistant running directly on your PC will be “the most compelling reason to upgrade your PC in many years.”
Global PC shipments fell by about 15% to 242 million units last year, according to research firm Gartner, as Microsoft expects new categories of computers to account for about one-fifth of PCs sold. It suggests that
“People just need to be convinced that the experience of the device alone justifies this whole new category of Copilot+ machines,” said Creative Strategies analyst Ben Bajarin.
Microsoft's new computer marketing category, “Copilot+,'' which emphasizes AI capabilities, is reminiscent of the “Ultrabook'' category of thin Windows laptops that Intel promoted with PC makers in 2011 to compete with Apple's MacBook Air.
Microsoft executives also said that ChatGPT maker OpenAI's latest technology, GPT-4o, will be available “soon” as part of Microsoft Copilot.
Microsoft also announced its new generation of Surface Pro tablets and Surface Laptops powered by Qualcomm chips based on Arm Holdings' architecture. The company also introduced a technology called Prism that allows software written for Intel and AMD chips to run on chips made with Arm technology.
Microsoft showed how its new device works against Apple devices and showed that Adobe's photo editing software runs faster on Microsoft devices. Apple earlier this month showed off a new AI-focused chip that analysts expect to be used in future laptops.
After Intel's processors dominated the PC market for decades, Qualcomm and other low-power Arm component makers have been trying to compete in the Windows-PC market.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chip contains a so-called neural processing unit designed to speed up AI-focused applications, such as Microsoft's Copilot software.
Microsoft held a product event the day before the start of its annual developer conference.
Microsoft aims to extend its early advantage in the race to develop AI tools that consumers are willing to pay for. As other Big Tech companies compete for dominance in emerging fields, the company's partnership with OpenAI has helped it jump ahead of Alphabet.
Last week, OpenAI and Alphabet's Google unveiled dueling AI technology that can respond and be interrupted by voice in real time, both features of realistic voice conversations that AI voice assistants have found challenging. . Google also announced that it will be rolling out some generative AI features to its lucrative search engine.
The PC industry has been under increasing pressure from Apple since it launched custom chips based on Arm designs and retired Intel processors. Apple-designed processors gave Mac computers better battery life and faster performance than competing chips that consumed more energy.
Microsoft appointed Qualcomm in 2016 to lead efforts to migrate its Windows operating system to Arm chip designs. Qualcomm has exclusive rights to Microsoft Windows devices, which expire this year. Other chip designers, such as Nvidia, are also working on producing their own Arm-based PC chips, Reuters previously reported.
