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Google Pulls the Plug On Its Pixel Laptops (engadget.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Engadget: Although its new flagship phones have been doing brisk sales, Google's high-end, $1,299 Pixel-branded Chromebooks won't be seeing much love from the search giant in the near future. According to TechCrunch, reporting from the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona today, Google's SVP of hardware Rick Osterloh has announced the second version of the Pixel laptop will be the last of its kind. As TechCrunch notes, Google is trimming down the Pixel line to just the smartphones and the Pixel C tablet for now. Although there may be other devices carrying the name in the future, Osterloh said it was unlikely that its own laptops would be one of them.
Perhaps, like so many of Google's software offerings, the Pixel was just in beta? It's considered dangerous to invest time and effort into much of fickle Google's software, lest it's withdrawn with only a few months' notice, and the same would appear true of their hardware lines, too.
Who could have foreseen that?
Seriously. For the entire duration of its existence, Google has only had search, advertising, and bluster going for it (stop right there, Fandroids. Android doesn't make them any money save through the aforementioned channels). Why anyone continues to put faith in them is a true head scratcher, particularly given what they take from their users.
and nothing of value was lost.
Just remember not to spend too much of your time into whatever they introduced. Your time is worth more than that.
The article has been updated with this addition:
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
The idea of the ChromeBook was to be cheap. Going up market never made sense since it would inherently lack features that an equivalent Windows or Mac (or Linux) laptop would have.
I thought the idea was to introduce a premium device on which Google employees would develop Chrome OS. That it was sold to the general public was incidental.
This. I was willing to pay more than $350 that i paid for N5, but $650 for the half baked pixel with a 5" screen? No thanks. I'll go OnePlus if my N5 dies.
Nothing really wrong with Pixel notebook but it was overkill for such a low impact OS as Chrome OS. After all it was a Linux shell with a Chrome browser and some web apps and will add Android apps. Again, low impact that doesn't require a $1200 notebook. Would be the same if Apple made a MacBook Pro and ran a OS like Chrome only using Safari as the browser. I think the price point of a Chrome OS device is under $300. That's about what they are worth in real world value. After all have you ever tried to trade a Chromebook? They ain't worth much as I found out.
--Arnold
when the internet goes down on a rainy day, they will care.
If they drop the price enough, it might be a good deal for a Linux laptop.
Why is Snark Required?
ChromeOS is still Gentoo underneath. Where is the justification for another generation of custom hardware platform to support that hack when Pink or Magenta or whatever is around the corner?
Brisk sales yet I can't order any to use for mine exploration recording.
My ass.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
you know unless it's a instant hit, they will pull the plug in a heartbeat. It's pretty much set up to fail from the start.
I'd buy one.