The battle for classroom supremacy is heating up. Today Microsoft Corp. announced new products for the education market, while Google LLC is claiming record numbers for its Chromebooks thanks to success in schools as well.

Ahead of the Bett educational show in London Wednesday, Microsoft announced a cheaper Surface Go pen, new educational software and a number of third-party Windows laptops and two-in-one devices geared toward the education sector.

Leading the list is the new Microsoft Classroom Pen (pictured), a new pen designed specifically with K-8 students and schools in mind. Optimized to work with the Surface Go, the cut-price tablet announced by Microsoft in July, the pen is designed for students who “put their learning tools through heavy wear and tear” and features a “durable, hardened pen tip and a replacement tip for each pen included in the box.”

Addressing concerns that the previous pens were both expensive at $99, as well as too easy to break, the new Classroom Pen is priced at a more reasonable $39.99, sold in packets of 20 to educational institutions for $799.80.

Alongside a cheaper pen option, Microsoft also revealed seven new devices from manufacturers that are intended for the education market. Starting at $189, the devices, from Acer Inc., Dell Inc. and Lenovo Group Ltd., include two two-in-one models priced at below $300, giving “students the versatility to convert from tablet to laptop mode,” according to a blog post from Microsoft.

In an interesting twist, one of the two-in-ones, the Lenovo 300e, includes a stylus but if it gets lost, students “can write on the screen with a regular No. 2 graphite pencil.”

On the software side, Microsoft announced a number of new tools for teachers. They include Grade Sync integration with SIS systems, mobile grading support on iOS and Android devices, Turnitin integration to fight plagiarism, free computer science curriculum and a new Assignments viewer.

Microsoft may have been dominating headlines in the lead-up to the Bett conference, but Google released data to show that its services and Chromebooks are slowly conquering the education world.

In a blog post, John Vamvakitis, director of international for Google’s education efforts, said 80 million educators and students around the world use G Suite for Education. Some 40 million students and educators are said to rely on Google Classroom to stay organized and support creative teaching techniques, while 30 million more use Chromebooks.

A graphic in the blog post shows that Chromebooks now hold an education market share of more than 50 percent in the U.S. and Canada while holding significant share in Australia, New Zealand and the European Union.

Photo: Microsoft