Why Google Needs To Launch the Chromebook Pixel

DavidGilbert99 writes "A leaked video of the purported Google Chromebook Pixel laptop has stirred quite a lot of interest but whether or not the laptop in the video is real, Google needs to launch it in order to kickstart the Chrome OS platform." A high-res screen would be welcome, but Google seems to be doing alright with Chromebook sales right now. Warning: IB Times has ads with autoplaying videos and sound; you have been warned.

Comments

Why?

[Sockatume]

The article doesn't make a particularly good case for why ChromeOS would suddenly become attractive on a high-resolution touchscreen. Especially given that it's built around Google's not-touch-optimised web apps.

Re:Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

I can see that. Meet me in HR in five minutes. - Your boss

Re:Why?

[h4rr4r]

The Acer C7 Chromebook does. RAM and HD can be changed.

The Nexus 7 can load whatever OS you like, same thing with a the Chromebook. You can download the files and flash them all you like or use USB OTG if you must have external storage.

You are either Trolling or extremely ignorant.

Re:Why?

[kllrnohj]

No, you can put whatever OS you want on a Chromebook assuming, like has always been true, the OS supports the hardware.

Ubuntu being the only one to support it isn't Chromebook's fault. Go yell at to support it, or in the spirit of open source, add it yourself. There's nothing particularly special about Chromebook's BIOS.

Well, I guess that's not entirely true. The special thing is that it uses Coreboot and U-Boot - both of which are *OPEN SOURCE PROJECTS* ( http://www.coreboot.org/Welcome_to_coreboot and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_U-Boot respectively).

I really keep forgetting about ChromeOS

[crazyjj]

Every now and then I see one of these ChromeOS stories, and it reminds me that ChromeOS exists. I'm not being catty there, I mean that I really do literally forget about it. That's probably not a good sign for Google. It not only hasn't made a big splash, it's barely made ANY splash at all.

Re:I really keep forgetting about ChromeOS

[Anonymous Coward]

Except that Chrome OS has been the top selling laptop on Amazon for many months now.

Re:I really keep forgetting about ChromeOS

[TheGratefulNet]

you mean buy a product that -needs- to always be connected to the public net, is written by the premier privacy snooper in the world and you have no true idea what's going on behind the scenes?

gee, I can't imagine why its not more popular.

Re:I really keep forgetting about ChromeOS

[hedwards]

No, but who is buying these things? Which is sort of the point. They don't fill any particular needs, they don't get any press either here or on regular web sites. I've never actually seen one anywhere. So, the GP is making a point that wherever they're being sold, it probably isn't in the general market. Or the owners aren't taking them outside for use.

I'm wondering if the hardware isn't just being repurposed for other things.

Re:I really keep forgetting about ChromeOS

[SJHillman]

I completely forget about Exxon unless it's in a news story, but they seem to be doing ok without me. Something about 7 billion other humans on the planet.

Re:I really keep forgetting about ChromeOS

[somersault]

It's the top selling laptop on both Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk right now. You've heard of Amazon, right? You know, the number 1 online retailer. Just how much more do you need before you define something as "popular", Mr Snarky?

Re:I really keep forgetting about ChromeOS

[somersault]

Or the owners aren't taking them outside for use

Why would you expect them to be outside? And do you always check what laptop everyone around you is using? My mum's laptop never leaves her house, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't exist or have any uses. My Ultrabook rarely leaves my desk at work, because I already have tablets and a desktop at home. I rarely take either of my tablets outside. My phone does the job just fine then.

They don't fill any particular needs

When tablets first came out everyone (including me) said they don't really fill a particular need. But they are very popular now. They aren't "needed", but they are much more convenient than a full laptop for the majority of browsing, email and IM needs, reading books, watching YouTube, etc.

This Chromebook isn't going to be much use for reading books, but as it comes with a full sized keyboard, it nicely fills in the gap for people who want something very cheap and portable with good battery life for browsing, but still comfortable for writing large emails, doing a lot of instant messaging, writing essays, etc. That is a whole lot of people.

Re:I really keep forgetting about ChromeOS

[h4rr4r]

Not replaceable?

For a slashdotter? You open the damn thing and solder in a new one. Kids these days.

What?

[Anonymous Coward]

Best buy advertises and sells Chromebooks. My mom has one and loves it compared to her slow netbook.

Re:What?

[zoid.com]

I agree... Chromebooks are great for parents :) They just work and tech support is nil.

Chromebooks outselling Windows 8 PCs

[Enderandrew]

Google doesn't need new hardware for Chrome OS. They just need more marketing, because they're already doing well.

Imagine for a moment that you're a small business, such as a plumbing company. You don't have a full-time IT staff. You have maybe 10-30 computers.

You're probably buying your PCs retail. Then you have to buy a Windows server, and pay someone to set it up. You buy CALs for users and computers. A second back-up server is probably out of your budget. Off-site data back-ups are probably out of the question.

Who administers your network to keep it safe and secure? How to do you prevent malware and viruses? Administer your email?

You pay a bunch upfront, and then never know when you need to bring in an IT company to fix things. Your IT budget is completely unknown.

Or, you get Chromebooks. Google used to offer packages to lease them for $25/$30 a month. Not sure if they still do, but you can get them for $250 if not. You don't have to have your own server, unless you need Citrix for proprietary Windows apps. Your data is in the cloud. You don't have to run a mail server. Anyone can sit at any PC and instantly have their work. You don't pay an IT staff. You can budget easily for IT costs.

http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/business/devices/

Re:Chromebooks outselling Windows 8 PCs

[squiggleslash]

I suspect the OP's comment is a combination of wishful thinking combined with misreading headlines. What is true is that:

1. The ChromeBook is doing well on Amazon. The fact it's topping the list of laptops shouldn't be seen as meaning that ChromeBooks in general are doing better than Windows 8 laptops because there are many, many, of the latter, and very few of the former.

2. Acer is saying that their ChromeBook is selling better than their Windows 8 machines. Again, that has to be balanced by context, Acer is one manufacturer, there are many more manufacturers of Windows laptops than ChromeBook laptops (and as such sales of ChromeBooks are split across fewer manufacturers)

There's no doubt the ChromeBook is doing extraodinarily well for a device that nobody has ever heard of. Actually, it'd be doing well even if it was well heard of. It's clearly a major threat to Microsoft and Apple right now. It may well be out-performing Apple's laptop sales already. But it's certainly not the top selling platform, even if some individual devices are top selling laptops.

Re:Screw this

[Anarchduke]

not really

Interesting, yet lacking in details..

[Squash]

Sure, the high res screen would be nice. If I could ask for a single upgrade for my Samsung Chromebook, that would be it.. But the last few Chromebooks released have been disappointing to me, and I'm skeptical that this would be any better.

I'd say Samsung got it right with the Exynos CPU, and ChromeOS runs very, very well on ARM. Between my home and business we've replaced 3 laptops with Chromebooks, but it seems like the Samsung model is the only one that I would even consider. If you want a cheap feeling, heavy, loud, low battery life laptop, there's plenty of those to choose from. If you want something that runs cool, runs for long time, doesn't annoy you with fans, and doesn't burn your lap, then the Samsung is your only pick.

Google, if you want to release a "powerhouse" chromebook, try the Exynos quad core, and throw in some more memory. Exynos supports 40 bit memory addressing, so the 4G barrier doesn't really exist in a practical sense (32 bit address space exposed to each processes, chrome is multi-process).

Screw ChromeOS

[DF5JT]

I want that screen in a shiny, non-Apple laptop and load it with Linux.

Still sussing out Chrome OS

[obarthelemy]

I installed a Chrome OS VM just yesterday to see what all the fuss was about.

It seems nice enough to surf and use web apps. I haven't really tried offline yet, but if they say it works, it probably does.

Were it does come apart is in any old-school scenario: I could find no way to access my network shares, to play non-local media content (except running a web server and presenting the content as Flash or HTML5), no DLNA client nor server.

I don't really see how Chrome OS is superior to Android. Is there anything Chrome OS does that Android doesn't ? 'coz there's sure plenty that Android does but Chrome OS doesn't !

Re:Foiled again, auto-playing ads!

[cyber-vandal]

Adblock and Flashblock are your best friends.