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$149 Chromebooks

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Re: $149 Chromebooks

#241

Post by eertami »

TheTaO wrote: post #168
jdietrich wrote: post #94

This is a colossal, market-moving play from Google. Look at the brand names. TRUE, XOLO, Nexian. Recognise them? Consumers in Thailand, India and Indonesia do - they are local smartphone brands. Look at the promo video. Notice how many Asian faces there are? This isn't about cheap Chromebooks, it's about a major strategic effort to court the global middle class. As with the Android One initiative, Google are seeking…

> This is a colossal, market-moving play from Google. Is it that or is it just an effort to stay relevant? If you can get a laptop/tablet that can do the same thing that this Chromebook does and has a full OS for a few bucks more, would you do it? There are tons of tablets from HP/Dell that cost 100-200$ and run full windows OS and have comparable specs to the Chromebooks. As far as I know they are selling quite well…

> If you can get a laptop/tablet that can do the same thing that this Chromebook does and has a full OS for a few bucks more, would you do it?

Are there really any sub-200$ Windows laptops that have 10 hour battery life on an 8 second boot?

I find that pretty hard to believe. Maybe they have similarly specced components but the experience will be much worse.

Re: $149 Chromebooks

#242

Post by Mikeb85 »

ssmoot wrote: post #219
Mikeb85 wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chromebook sales are constantly rising. With the eventual capability that they'll be able to run Android programs, as well as PNaCl and Emscripten borrowing from each other and getting better offering opportunity for tons of apps to be ported to the web, and then of course HTML5 and Js becoming the technology of choice for all sorts of apps, Chromebooks are the eventual future. Maybe they're not the present, but they…

> "Maybe they're not the present, but they ARE the future." That reminds me of Sun in the early 90's. I'm not saying you're wrong. But I don't think it's inevitable you're right either. Especially since browser UI toolkits are still stuck in the stone age compared to native counterparts. Until that gets fixed, I actually think it's probably just wishful thinking.

How ubiquitous is Java? Containers, VMs, etc..., ARE all the rage. Sun was correct as to what technology belongs to the future, they just couldn't position their company properly. Odds are we're all using technology that's part of Sun's legacy...

Re: $149 Chromebooks

#243

Post by jhall1468 »

maaku wrote: post #123
daeken wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Microsoft isn't as good at collecting and reselling all of your personal information, so have to charge the actual cost of the hardware. Google does not sell your personal information in any way. They use it for their own advertising purposes, but they don't sell it to anyone, in any form.

> They use it for their own advertising purposes, but they don't sell it to anyone, in any form. Some people wouldn't distinguish those two.

Some people don't distinguish a knife from an elephant, but those people are wrong too.

Re: $149 Chromebooks

#244

Post by kowdermeister »

ssmoot wrote: post #219
Mikeb85 wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chromebook sales are constantly rising. With the eventual capability that they'll be able to run Android programs, as well as PNaCl and Emscripten borrowing from each other and getting better offering opportunity for tons of apps to be ported to the web, and then of course HTML5 and Js becoming the technology of choice for all sorts of apps, Chromebooks are the eventual future. Maybe they're not the present, but they…

> "Maybe they're not the present, but they ARE the future." That reminds me of Sun in the early 90's. I'm not saying you're wrong. But I don't think it's inevitable you're right either. Especially since browser UI toolkits are still stuck in the stone age compared to native counterparts. Until that gets fixed, I actually think it's probably just wishful thinking.

There are orders of magnitude more UI kits for HTML/CSS then there are for native.

Re: $149 Chromebooks

#245

Post by aikah »

Chefkoochooloo wrote: post #164

I think this product will do well especially for students, start-up businesses, or even for leisure use. Google's goal is to be able to address the affordability and at the same time not sacrificing quality. It definitely isn't the best machine out there but it is sufficient for daily use of middle-income consumers and students. On their video ad, it's obvious that they are also focusing on an international market wh…

> Google's goal is to be able to address the affordability and at the same time not sacrificing quality.

Google's goal is to sell its cloud services, not the hardware here. The specs are crappy and that laptop is basically useless if you are doing anything else than internet. Sure it cost 150$, but that's an expensive surfing machine. And Google is off course selling internet services...

> I think this product will do well especially for students, start-up businesses, or even for leisure use.

You know, the exact same arguments were used to sell netbooks(students,leisure), which were an horrible failure,and you're still falling for that? at least most netbooks ran on windows... You don't even get that with Chrome OS.

People are not idiots, especially those who have a tight budget, they'll be even more vocal about crappy cheap products because it represents a larger share of their income. That thing with these specs... I bet most people are ready to invest $100 more to have at least a proper notebook. You can get a 11 inches Acer laptop for 50 dollars more. With a browser AND windows,with a proper Hard drive.Why would people want to pay JUST for a fucking browser? they wouldn't unless they have so much spare money they don't care.

Re: $149 Chromebooks

#246

Post by JoshTriplett »

VikingCoder wrote: post #188
TheTaO wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is a colossal, market-moving play from Google. Is it that or is it just an effort to stay relevant? If you can get a laptop/tablet that can do the same thing that this Chromebook does and has a full OS for a few bucks more, would you do it? There are tons of tablets from HP/Dell that cost 100-200$ and run full windows OS and have comparable specs to the Chromebooks. As far as I know they are selling quite well…

> If you can get a laptop/tablet that can do the same thing that this Chromebook does That's not remotely true. When my grandparents and parents ask me what computer they should get, or my in-laws ask what they should get their kids, I'm going to seriously consider Chromebooks. If they need to run Office, or Minecraft, clearly it's not a fit. But for the tweeting / facebooking / gmailing universe, a Chromebook is a v…

> When my grandparents and parents ask me what computer they should get, or my in-laws ask what they should get their kids, I'm going to seriously consider Chromebooks. If they need to run Office, or Minecraft, clearly it's not a fit. But for the tweeting / facebooking / gmailing universe, a Chromebook is a very nice box.

If you really need Office, and not just Google Docs, you can actually run Office on a Chromebook.

Re: $149 Chromebooks

#247

Post by tdkl »

jdietrich wrote: post #94

This is a colossal, market-moving play from Google. Look at the brand names. TRUE, XOLO, Nexian. Recognise them? Consumers in Thailand, India and Indonesia do - they are local smartphone brands. Look at the promo video. Notice how many Asian faces there are? This isn't about cheap Chromebooks, it's about a major strategic effort to court the global middle class. As with the Android One initiative, Google are seeking…

> Recognise them? Consumers in Thailand, India and Indonesia do - they are local smartphone brands. Look at the promo video. Notice how many Asian faces there are?

Me on the other hand see only the hunger for next batch of data collecting on a population that is still "unexplored".

Re: $149 Chromebooks

#248

Post by namenotrequired »

Mikeb85 wrote: post #187
na85 wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everyone lives in a first-world country where ubiquitous internet access via wifi hotspots has been implemented, and not everyone can afford a 3G plan.

In the third world, internet access is more common than you think... My wife's family gets more reliable internet and wireless coverage than they do electricity or plumbing. When I went down there, you could go to a textile shop or open air market and I'd pick up open WiFi hotspots..m

In support of this, in my SO's city in Brazil there's many more public wifi places than anywhere in the Netherlands.

Re: $149 Chromebooks

#249

Post by seanmcdirmid »

mcpherrinm wrote: post #189
ams6110 wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How usable/practical is it without a WiFi connection?

What do you want to do offline? You can install chrome and turn off your internet connection today and find out how well it works for you. Browse https://chrome.google.com/webstore/category/apps?_feature=of... to get a list of apps that are available that work offline.

Or just take your chrome book to china where all Google apps are blocked...

Re: $149 Chromebooks

#250

Post by beagle3 »

SwellJoe wrote: post #183
hyperpallium wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think MS's reaction will be interesting. When linux netbooks came out, they aggressively discounted Windows for them, fending off the linux threat from below. MS/intel already have some incredibly cheap tablets (and Windows 8.1 reportedly runs well on them). Seems logical that MS will discount again. All they have to lose is everything.

That was an interesting, and scary, wielding of their power actually. I'm happy they don't have quite that much power anymore. The reason I say it was scary was that it was a moment in time where you could watch a class of computers from one generation to the next get worse because of limits imposed by Microsoft on OEMs. I bought a Dell Mini 9 just before they switched to the Mini 10. The Mini 10 actually had half th…

The people who downvoted SwellJoe: Can you explain? The facts about the "netbooks" are verifiable facts, see e.g. [0]. That's a business version of "embrace, extinguish" (no extension here), and it's classic for the Bill Gates / Ballmer era.

Microsoft was strongarming the manufacturers - in 2009, they could still do that easily (and they might still be able to today). The carrot and stick was reduced Windows licensing - but only if you make netbooks unusable. And thus netbooks died. I hope that Nadella's Microsoft is not like that - it looks way better than the Ballmer days - but having been bitten multiple times, I'll wait until I trust Microsoft again.

[0] http://www.pcworld.com/article/169919/5_netbooks_microsoft_h...

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