Chrome VP: No More Cr-48s, Chrome OS Devices This Summer
thechromesource.com
thechromesource.com
Unless Google does several MAJOR updates in the next couple months the Chrome devices will be feature deficient to the extreme. Windows netbooks can do 99% of what a PC can do. On a smaller screen and with a weaker processor but they can still do it. ChromeOS can barely handle reading an SD Card.
On the other side of the equation Windows netbooks can do everything a ChromeOS netbook can by simply installing the Chrome browser. The machine won’t come on in 6 seconds but other than that a Chrome-based netbook has no advantages.
This could be overcome if Google had embraced the community and sought out advocates for web based computing (that’s how Firefox spread virally). But they haven’t done that. In fact what they did do was send a CR-48 to every hardware reviewer on the web only to have it panned over and over and over again. So instead of having ChromeOS fan sites they have Engadget and TechCrunch saying “this kind of sucks”
Given all that I just don’t see these selling
Edit: I forgot to mention you have HP pushing WebOS on all its computers which has a lot of the advantages of ChromeOS and a lot more features to boot.
A Chrome OS netbook can cold boot in a few seconds, has a nice hardware keyboard, excellent user switching and cloud-based data storage. Chrome OS is far ahead of Android in terms of the "ideal" cloud landscape where your settings, data, and everything else is totally 100% okay even if you set your machine on fire and smash it with a hammer. Try smashing your Windows netbook and see what happens to your documents.
So I definitely think they've got a place in the market and I think they know that. But you're probably right about sales numbers...I can't see it going very far.
You need features. Tell people that Farmville requires a mac and after a decade of XP they suddenly will have a mac.
I can. I'll take the opposite bet. (Not an extravagant amount. I'm bootstrapping right now. Wanna give me odds?)
Unless Google does several MAJOR updates in the next couple months the Chrome devices will be feature deficient to the extreme.
Features aren't what matters.
Windows netbooks can do 99% of what a PC can do. On a smaller screen and with a weaker processor but they can still do it.
Yes, but how good is the netbook experience? Can Google do for a laptop-like form factor what Apple did for tablets? I think yes. In particular, Google seems to have recognized that, as far as security and cryptography infrastructure goes, the computing mainstream is in a state of poverty. As far as having workable security infrastructure in place, we are in a state analogous to pre-industrial nations physical infrastructure. (Or maybe the internet in the days when there were still BBS and AOL was up and coming.)
Google gets it. They're doing something about it in a walled garden of their own making. If they succeed, they're going to revolutionize owning a computer in a way that the interstate highways changed car ownership in the US. (And no, Apple doesn't quite get this yet. They get the walled garden part, but they are still a little incompetent with security.)
It's just hard to see for us right now, because we're used to the crappy way things are, just like people were used to driving on narrow, winding, poorly paved roads without seatbelts.
A lot of suboptimal user behavior is like those dogs in the cages with electrified floors. Everything/everywhere sucks, so you just lie down on it and accept the suck as normal. (The dogs in the experiment were eventually just lying down on the electrified floor.)
Basically, if you're to have a hope of delivering the highest levels of "it just works" then you're going to have to build some security infrastructure to support it.
Grandma uses skype because her grandkids are overseas. Dad uses an old version of Quicken he'll never upgrade from. Mom uses an HP multifunction printer and edits scanned photos. Sister uses two different instant messengers. Son plays a couple of video games. etc.
I'm not sure where ChromeOS fits into any of this. Tablets are a pretty big compromise and ChromeOS can't do 90% of what tablets can do, let alone a real OS.
Sure, it's possible to do a lot of desktop PC stuff on a netbook, but who would want to?
I wanted a CR-48 because I wanted something to play with, not because I wanted a free laptop.
I still wanted a CR-48 after the giveaway thing was done because I still wanted something to play with, but I couldn't find anywhere to get the install and...start playing with it.
I honestly think that they had good intentions with the CR-48 thing, but I think they mismanaged it.
Chrome OS isn't trying to tackle an existing market any more than Nintendo's Wii was trying to target the hardcore gamer. There are far more people interested in doing LESS with their computer as it's less daunting and intimidating that way. Combine that with the severely lessened threat of viruses and a near one-click full system restore feature that, due to cloud storage, poses absolutely no threat to any data less and you have a #winning level of simplicity that no Windows-based netbook can offer.
The device does what it is supposed to do very well--let the user live in the cloud. However it doesn't let the user do much when they are not connected. Understandable given the purpose of the device, but outside of the geek-culture you are not going to find a lot of people where this is acceptable. I can see this as a popular cult item or niche item, but not something with mainstream appeal.
I would say the opposite, most non-geek people I know consider computers to be useless without an internet connection, geeks can always open a terminal and do some hacking though.
Of course, Google kicks back money to Mozilla and Android vendors, so two can play at that game.