As we work to deliver on our company mission of empowering every person and organization on the planet to achieve more, we have increased our focus on helping people across their work and personal lives. Offering tools for whole life experiences has never been more important as many of us are living a digital lifestyle that presents more opportunities, yet more demands on our time, than ever before.
Whether you are juggling a career and family; running a family as head of household; or growing your career or education, you tell us your greatest need is simply more time and the tools to do what matters most to you.
Our Digital Lifestyle
The explosion of innovation over the last decade has fundamentally changed the way we live our lives. More than ever before we move fluidly between our work and personal lives as technology is always with us. This shift in lifestyle is centered around three key dynamics:
- There is a blurring of work and life leading to a feeling of being “always on.” Technology has enabled us to be constantly performing work or personal tasks anytime, and while that has benefits, many of us are unable to find balance.
- The constant battle for our attention is making it hard to focus and is challenging our ability to be productive. Many of us check our phones between 150-1,000 times each day. And some of the apps and services we use are designed to capture our attention and mine our personal data – ultimately taking our time, versus giving us time back.
- Finally, there is an increasing desire for purpose in our work and lives. All around us we are seeing a redefinition of success. Many of us are viewing our careers less as a ladder and more as a lattice, where we can grow from new experiences, and pursue multiple passions. We see these today in the rise of the side hustle, the gig economy, and the success of companies that focus on giving back.
Empowering a New Era of Personal Productivity
We believe Microsoft can uniquely help you manage this digital lifestyle by delivering technology that empowers rather overwhelms you. We are centering on our area of strength and passion to empower a new era of personal productivity. Not just at work, but also in how you live, learn, and play. This journey begins today with announcements across five areas.
1. New Surface devices that continue to push the boundaries on technology, including: Surface Pro 6, Surface Laptop 2, Surface Studio 2, a new way to purchase Surface devices with Surface All Access and Surface Headphones,
2. New features like the Your Phone App and Windows Timeline, that will help you move seamlessly across all your devices and bridge the gap between your iOS and Android devices and your PC Integration of To-Do’swith Skype and Outlook.com to help you manage your time better than ever before.
3. Integration of To-Do’swith Skype and Outlook.com to help you manage your time better than ever before.
4. New features like Family Safety in Microsoft Launcher to ensure identity and data security by leveraging the enterprise-class Intelligent Security Graph and machine learning.
5. New features like Inking in PowerPointand Word, Embedded 3D Animations in our devices such as the Surface Pen and Dial, and Office 365, to enable you to unlock your creativity while collaborating with others.
These experiences are enabled by new innovations in Office 365 and the Windows 10 October 2018 Update which is available today.
For more information on the announcements click here.