These things are getting increasingly more tempting. I'm actually in the market for something to give my parents, but I actually think an 11" screen is too small for them. 13" might be more like it, but in all honesty they probably still need a 15" machine. But I'm getting increasingly close to picking up one of these just for the hell of it.
My dad loves his Chromebook. TBH he's older and gets confused pretty easily and I don't think I'd trust him to keep even a Mac free of malware. It's basically only either a thin client or an iPad, and we already FaceTime on his iPhone, so dropping the Apple Tax on another iOS device (that doesn't come with a keyboard) doesn't make sense when Chromebooks are so cheap.
A Chromebook would serve all his writing/email/browsing needs, but the only question I have is about USB peripherals - can you plug your digital camera in and have it pop up with all the pictures? And then a nice easy workflow to upload to google drive?
Also I presume it doesnt play nice with iPhones?