The glorious Wintel alliance which is still running despite a few hiccups has a cunning plan to see off the threat of Google Chromebooks.
Microsoft and its chum Intel plans to launch a device running Windows 10 with Bing.
Microsoft and Intel are working with all partners to bring cheaper devices to the market and help tackle the growth of Google Chromebooks.
Stage one of the plan is to release a cheap OEM version of Windows 10 with Bing.
As was the case with Windows 8.1, Windows 10 with Bing will be a Windows 10 SKU available exclusively for PC makers and will be offered at a very low cost or even free of charge.
Microsoft has worked out that it needs to slash licensing fees that manufacturers need to pay for installing Windows on their devices.
Windows with Bing is basically Windows 8.1 with Bing offered the same features as Windows 8.1 but came with Bing branding that OEMs could not change.
Users, however, were allowed to replace Bing as the default search engine with Google or something else.
A Windows 10 with Bing flavour will appear later. In fact Windows 10 is designed to be installed on as many devices as possible, and Microsoft expects one billion PCs, tablets, and smartphones to be running it by 2017.
