Just a little over two weeks after making a big push into the education market with the launch of its impending Surface laptop and Windows 10 S operating system, Microsoft (MSFT) is facing re-intensified competition from the likes of Amazon (AMZN) and Apple (AAPL), who all want more of the multibillion dollar K-12 education market.

For some time now Alphabet’s (GOOG) Google has owned the market with its Chromebook and apps geared toward schools and students. Recognizing it’s a big industry, one that has the potential to grow, Microsoft tried to get back to the head of the class in early May, announcing the Surface Laptop with comes equipped with a 13.5-inch screen, weighs 2.76 pounds and will launch in burgundy, cobalt, platinum and gold. The device designed for the education market will sell for $999 and is slated to start shipping by June 15. Accompanying the Surface laptop is Microsoft’s new Windows 10 S operating system, which is streamlined for classroom use and only let’s users run applications that are downloaded from the Microsoft’s Windows Store. It is aimed directly at Google’s Chrome operating system, which powers bare-bones Chromebook laptops.  Microsoft is taking a page from Google by making the device and the OS simple to use and secure.

Will The K-12 Education Market Breathe New Life Into PC Sales?

Microsoft’s stock got a slight boost on the news as investors and analysts bet it’s a way to breathe new life into its PC business. With the market for desktop and notebook computers slagging around the globe, all of the computer players are looking for different avenues of growth. Market research firm IDC recently found worldwide shipments of desktops, notebooks and workstations only saw a slight uptick of just 0.6 percent during the first quarter, hitting 60.3 million units shipped. That is essentially flat with a year ago and marks the first time in five years PC shipments increased during the first quarter. Helping the overall market were Chromebook sales. At last count roughly 20 million students, most in the U.S., use a Chromebook. IDC estimates around 10.8 million Chromebooks shipped last year with that forecast to grow by 15 percent this year. In 2015 7.7 million Chromebooks were shipped, according to IDC.

Meanwhile Futuresource, a market research firm, recently put Google’s piece of the pie at 58 percent in the U.S. with Microsoft and Windows coming in second with roughly 22 percent share and Apple’s MacOs and iOS combined in third place with 19 percent of the market. Rewind a few years and Apple was the leading player in K-12 with close to half of all devices found in U.S. classrooms being Apple ones. "Microsoft has made huge strides in developing its education ecosystem offering in the past year, with major announcements on both the devices and platform side. To date however, these developments have not stopped Google's momentum within the US K-12 market. Microsoft continues to face challenges to win back end-user mindshare. Chromebook users and administrators continually refer to the simplicity and ease of use of the platform,” said Mike Fisher, Associate Director of Education at Futuresource Consulting, in a March research report. While Microsoft was able to garner attention from its new announcement, Google too has been busy improving on its own offering in the education market. Users can now run Android apps on Chromebooks, and convertible and detachable versions of the Chromebook have entered the marketplace.

Apple, Amazon Want More Share Of The Ed. Market

But it’s not only Google that Microsoft has to contend with. Both Apple and Amazon want a bigger share of that market and have refined their strategies to do gain that. Take Amazon for starters. Earlier this week the ecommerce giant announced a refresh to its line of Fire tablets and a new kids edition version of the Fire HD 8 which provides parents with access to Amazon’s FreeTime Unlimited service which costs $2.99 a month and enables adults to monitor and control their children’s usage of the device and restrict the content children can access be it books, games, videos and websites. This comes on the heels of a new dashboard the company launched in April so parents can monitor all the digital activities of their children.Meanwhile Bloomberg reported this week that Apple is gearing up to update its line of laptops in early June when it holds its yearly app developers conference. Among the three laptops that are slated to get a refresh include the MacBook Pro., a new version of the 12-inch MacBook and the 13-inch MacBook Air. The move is aimed at stealing Microsoft’s thunder with the Surface laptop and to continue the momentum Apple has been seeing with its Mac computers. Apple sold 4.2 million desktops and laptops during the second quarter, with Bloomberg noting that category generated 14 percent more revenue than in its first quarter.