Poor Microsoft. A decade ago they were the hottest computer company on the planet, but the proceeding years have seen their street cred drop rapidly among consumers who have switched from PCs to MacBooks, from Office to Google Docs, from Internet Explorer to Chrome. And that’s saying nothing of the company completely missing the smartphone boat which saw the iPhone andAndroid handsets take over the tech world.

Now many pundits are saying that 2015 is the year Microsoft needs to make its products--specifically Windows--relevant again--or else. Tomorrow the company will hold a Windows 10 event to (hopefully) do just that. You can read everything we know about Windows 10 here, including many of the rumoured upcoming features. Below however are four of the things Microsoft absolutely needs to unveil if people are to start considering Windows devices as the best option for their needs in the future.

Continuum

Continuum isn’t actually something we’re hoping Microsoft will reveal. It’s already a stated feature of Windows 10. We just need to see it working flawlessly. So, what exactly is Continuum? It’s the name of the feature that will allow Windows 10 to adapt automatically based on the device you are using it on.

You see, Windows 10 is reportedly designed to run on any device: desktop, laptop, tablet, smartphone. The idea is the OS can automatically detect which device it’s on and reformat itself to work optimally on said device. Now, why is this necessary? Because Microsoft is betting big that hybrid devices like the Surface, which can be a tablet when you want it to be and a laptop when you want it to be, are the future. And I think they’re right. 

The problem with the existing Windows 8 and the Surface is that detaching the keyboard from the Surface does not automatically prompt the user to have the OS switch into tablet mode.

This sounds like a little thing, but it’s not when you want seamlessness in the user experience. Apple provides software support for third-party iPad external keyboard makers. Attach a keyboard to the iPad and iOS knows automatically what to hide and what physical keyboard features to enable. Detach it and iOS can switch right back into full touch screen mode again. Microsoft needs to nail this seamlessness in Continuum as well if they want the Surface user experience to improve.

Give Developers A Way and A Reason To Fill The App Gap

I’m actually a big fan of Windows Phone. I use an iPhone, but I wouldn’t NOT consider switching to a Windows Phone one day if they could just solve one (major) problem: the lack of apps. Look at the Play store or Apple’s App Store and you’ll find hundreds of thousands of quality apps--including apps from all the big names. But then go to the Windows Phone Store and you’ll see at least half of your most-used iOS and Android apps are probably non-existent. People refer to this as Windows Phone’s “app gap”. Some major developers just don't care enough about the platformto be bothered porting their apps over to it.

Windows as a desktop OS cannot stay relevant for another decade if its mobile counterpart doesn’t start catching on with users. After all, in the future mobile will be our most used devices and our desktops will be secondary. If Microsoft wants to be in the game they need to close the app gap. And they may have found a way. 

Windows 10 will feature universal apps, known as OneCore, allowing developers to make an app for the desktop and easily port it over to Windows Phone with some simple coding. When it comes to apps for the desktop, Windows is king. If they can leverage this array of apps and make it simple for developers to port them to Windows Phone then they have a chance of filling that app gap. Tomorrow we just need to see how well these universal apps work--and how easy it is for developers to implement.

ZDNET's Microsoft sage in residence Mary Jo Foley had this to say about Microsoft's plans for OneCore: "OneCore implies more than just the common kernel that Microsoft touted as part of its Windows 8/Windows Phone 8 stories. In addition to the OS kernel, OneCore also includes the dynamic link libraries (DLLs), application platform layer and other pieces of the operating system. Microsoft's pitch to developers with Windows 10 will be they can target the same core environment with their apps, and those "Universal" apps will work across a range of screen sizes. These apps will be available in a single store, rather than separate Windows, Windows Phone and Xbox stores."

Spartan and Cortana

Internet Explore has shed market share over the last several years to both Chrome and Firefox, but Microsoft has a chance to claw some of that back with its new browser in Windows 10, called Spartan. From what we know of it, Spartan will not just be the next version of IE, but a totally new, lightweight browser with a killer feature--Cortana built in.

Cortana is Microsoft’s personal digital assistant software (Apple has Siri, Google has Now). Right now Cortana is Windows Phone-only. It’s also one of the strengths of Windows Phone. In my tests it works better than both Now and Siri and is much more user friendly and versatile. If Microsoft really bakes Cortana in to Spartan it could be the first one to have a unified personal digital assistant across all platforms (desktop, laptop, tablet, and smartphone). And if Cortana remembers your preferences between devices, it makes staying in the Microsoft ecosystem very appealing. 

Price

Because a lot of people felt burned when they paid to “upgrade” from Windows 7 to Windows 8, Microsoft has an uphill challenge in front of it. Even though Windows 10 looks like it really might be that much better than Windows 8, Microsoft risks slow adoption of it--especially in the consumer space--if they don’t price it right.

So what is the right price? Tomorrow I’d love for them to announce that Windows 10 will be free on all devices--I just don't think that will happen. Sure, Apple gives OS X away for free now, but Apple makes its money off of hardware. Microsoft is still a software company. 

Still, the company needs to find a way to make the price right so people who still have nightmares about Windows 8 will risk shelling out the cash for the next Microsoft OS. For me, Microsoft announcing Windows 10 is free wouldn’t just be gutsy. It’d be a show of confidence that the company is saying “Yeah, we can give this release away for free because it’s so good we know you’re not going to want to switch away from us in the future.”