HP, Microsoft Team Up To Take On Chromebook Market With New Stream Notebook

Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft have teamed up to release the inexpensive HP Stream notebook running on Windows 8.1.

The Stream notebook, starting at $199, offers a hefty amount of cloud storage and is built to take on the immense Chromebook market.

"It is exciting to see Windows on this ultra-low-cost platform," said Robby Hill, founder and CEO of Florence, S.C.-based solution provider HillSouth, a Microsoft and HP partner. "It's a huge market. When you go into education, all you hear about is Chromebooks. I'm pleased HP and Microsoft have migrated to those waters. There is no doubt these will be very competitive against Chromebooks in the marketplace. I think that when Microsoft and HP tackled the Chromebook market, they'll succeed with the ability to have more applications available. Installing real windows on an inexpensive device will be the preferred path for a lot of users."

[Related: Samsung To Exit European Laptop Market As Second-Tier PC Makers Struggle ]

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The Stream notebook runs through a browser, and has apps running native through Windows.

Microsoft is offering 1 TB of OneDrive cloud storage for a year with the device. The company also is offering a one-year subscription to Office 365 Personal, in addition to a $25 credit to the Microsoft ecosystem, including apps, videos and Xbox games.

The Stream comes with an 11.6-inch HD display, while the $230 model will come with a 13.3-inch screen. Both models will be released in the U.S. in November.

With Sony recently selling off its Vaio line and Samsung announcing the discontinuing sales of laptops -- including Chromebooks -- in Europe, Douglas Grosfield, president and CEO of Xylotek Solutions, a Cambridge, Ontario-based solution provider and Microsoft partner, said HP and Microsoft have a great opportunity to compete as he sees both companies signaling to pull back in the space.

"I think Microsoft and HP are attacking this market at the right time, and whenever you have two major players like that partnering together, no reason to think they won't be successful," Grosfield said. "I certainly think they'll be able to compete. Microsoft dabbles in the hardware space, and plays a role in innovation and focuses in the software side of it. Their partnership here with HP is a rinse-and-repeat exercise for them that they've done with others."

HP offers touch-screen capabilities as an option on the larger model Stream notebook. Both models come standard with an Intel Celeron processor and have 32 GB of flash storage. Both models of the Stream notebooks offer about eight hours of battery life.

PUBLISHED SEPT. 30, 2014