The Curious Case Of The Chromebook: Is It Really A Hit?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/markrogowsky/2013/12/31/the-curious-case-of-the-chromebook-is-it-really-a-hit/

by kirtijthorat • 13 years ago

33 65 13 years ago

bdfh422• 13 years ago

A hit or not - but I just ordered one.

I stopped carrying a Windows laptop around early in 2013 when I switched to a Nexus 10 for everyday use. Now I want to show other people that there are alternatives even within the familiar laptop form factor. Plus I want to demonstrate to customers that I can deliver a fully functional application without Windows.

acheron• 13 years ago

It's funny, I would have agreed with you not all that long ago, but nowadays I'm much more concerned about avoiding Google than I am about avoiding Windows.

bdfh422• 13 years ago

I take your point but my switching to a Nexus was all about form factor and convenience than any specific issue with Windows. Now I am going to try out a Chromebook - pretty confident that it can support my day to day (non coding) requirements.

The security issues do have to be addressed and we do need to get the spies out of our lives but as far as I can see all the available platforms are currently corrupted by those agencies at the moment.

na85• 13 years ago

I don't think it's all that surprising. If my daily routine consisted mostly of email and simple documents (i.e. not code) I'd buy one in a heartbeat. They're great little machines.

I had a chance to play with the Pixel version and it's really nice. Cold boots in something like 7 seconds. Chiclet-style keyboard, nice touchpad, etc.

Truthfully I'm not sure my next laptop won't be a chromebook anyways: Surely it's possible to put linux on them, in which case you've basically got yourself a netbook.

j2kun2• 13 years ago

My daily routine consists of code and I still enjoy my chromebook. It has ssh, so I don't need to wipe everything to do the little bit of coding I need to when I'm on the go.

It's not a replacement for my desktop machine, but still worth the $250 bucks.

ocfx2• 13 years ago

Makes a good guest/living room computer too

seabrookmx• 13 years ago

Using crouton you don't need to wipe it to run Linux. It installs Debian or Ubuntu into a chroot.

I agree with the SSH sentiment though.

drhayes9• 13 years ago

Have you checked out Nitrous.io? https://www.nitrous.io/

Haven't had a serious need for it yet but it makes a Chromebook more attractive to me for sure.

cheald• 13 years ago

I got a Pixel at IO, and my wife won one of the HP Chromebooks in the "Give a Chromebook" contest Google ran earlier this year. We use them so much - they're our go-to machines for most things (I'm on my desktop for work, but any time I'm not in my office I'm on the Chromebook), and we have desktops that we can jump to if we need heavier work. However, most of our email/social networking/music/youtube/netflix/recipes/general googling happens on them.

Chromebooks aren't full replacements for how we use computers, but they're 95% of the way there, and given how inexpensive and light they are (not to mention how freakin' fast they are to boot/wake) they're an amazing complement to most computing cases.

My dev setup for years has been a Windows client working against a Linux box on my LAN. This works great with the Chromebook because I can just SSH into my Linux box and work in vim - the lack of computing power or storage doesn't bother me because all the real work happens on my beefy server, but I can still hang out on the couch with my boys and code.

ioddly• 13 years ago

I'm getting along very well with an HP Chromebook 14 running crouton. I do programming and watch videos and other stuff without involving The Cloud. Not an option for the average consumer but for HN readers, an intriguing option.

Kiro• 13 years ago

One thing that the author is

ajcarpy20052• 13 years ago

Chromebooks actually can be viable for coding. Firstly, Crouton lets you operate Linux and switch instantly between ChromeOS and Linux. Secondly, you can use an online IDE through Chrome. Thirdly, you could remotely operate in Windows using either a personal machine or a hosted Web server and this could be either through Linux or Chrome. This would enable using Visual Studio, for instance. I think the Chromebook Pixel with a decent home Server used for a traditional and powerful desktop environment would pair quite nicely.

ocfx2• 13 years ago

Check out the caret text editor. It's like STT.

JAFTEM• 13 years ago

That's great and all, but I'm still confused why I would want one over a traditional laptop (or ultrabook) with OS X, Windows, or Linux unless it's purely to save money on a less expensive Chromebook model.

ceras• 13 years ago

Cheaper and simpler. I don't like all the baggage that comes with Windows/Mac: ChromeOS auto-updates, has no bloatware, boots up instantly, backs everything up in the cloud, and has a clean minimal UI that I don't have to think about -- nor do the less technical members of my family (they never really understood how to use Windows after all these years, just memorized a few steps for common actions).

For $199 I have a computer that runs 10hrs on battery and does everything I need in the simplest way possible -- far simpler than the competition, that's for sure.

The question I have is why would I want a traditional laptop over this? They offer extra features I just don't need at the cost of complexity, maintenance, battery life, and price.

ajcarpy20052• 13 years ago

The value proposition of a Chromebook Pixel is excellent battery life, a free Terabyte of Google Drive space (4 yrs), very nice touchscreen display, quality craftsmanship, secure and fast OS, lightweight design, and great microphones even.

BTW, if personal Internet ever went down, there's a model that has a cellular modem or you can tether from your smartphone with mobile hotspot.

If you need to use traditional Windows applications frequently then maybe a native Wkndows device would be more useful. Although I gather that it's technically possible to install Windows 8 on a Chromebook.

thebiglebrewski• 13 years ago

I think it's awesome for coding! I wrote a short article about it a bit ago. http://blog.zfeldman.com/2013-10-05-setting-up-a-chromebook-...

corresation• 13 years ago

While this is a rehash of exactly the pattern we saw as Android grew ("Shipments not sales. Haven't seen one in a coffee shop. No one in my family. Some web stat source says..."), with the same players regurgitating their old hits, I do wonder why people trust StatCounter so much?

StatCounter relies upon subject sites adding a bit of code that reports back to StatCounter, giving them their metrics. Curious, I inspected every single site I visit in a typical day, and zero of them have the StatCounter code.

I am invisible to StatCounter. I don't roll with Chromebook, so not really relevant in this case, but it's interesting how frequently StatCounter is used to make some proclamation or other with no one ever questioning what their coverage is.

bane3• 13 years ago

Haven't seen one in a coffee shop. No one in my family. Some web stat source says..."), with the same players regurgitating their old hits, I do wonder why people trust StatCounter so much?

And what has the actual result been over time? Are we looking for confirmation anecdotes in the wrong places? It seems to me that many of those early stats turned out to be true. For example, Android devices dominates the global smartphone market at over 80%. That's either a lot of shipped but not sold devices sitting on shelves filling up every inch of floor space in retail stores around the world, or this kind of stat tracking has some validity.

eli3• 13 years ago

Not disagreeing with you, but it's interesting that iPhone still dominates Android in metrics that measure actual use (go check android vs iphone in your web logs, for example).

undoware• 13 years ago

The Curious Case of Forbes: Does anyone there use something OTHER than Windows?

Seriously, guys. You reek of dad. Your ability to predict and understand the tech market is undercut by the demographic of reporters needed to furnish reporting to your markets. This is why you all understand Burberry a lot better than Blackberry, and that a lot better than any of the devices that have come out since the Bush administration.

I am replacing you with a tiny shell that accepts PayPal from Microsoft.

Thank you.

walshemj• 13 years ago

And everyone knows that Barbour is the way to go :-) style tip dont wear them with the Barbour enamel badge on very non U.

andrewljohnson2• 13 years ago

The money quote:

NPD’s numbers would have us believe Chromebook’s were nearly 50 times more popular (9.6% of the market vs. 0.2%) in a segment that grew 25% from last year. That’s rather remarkable as it would suggest sales increased perhaps sixtyfold.

What else grew 60x this year, besides bitcoin and chromebooks?

azakai• 13 years ago

The quote is skeptical of those numbers - "would have us believe" is the indicator of that.

The entire article investigates whether the 60x number from NPD is plausible or not.

The article's conclusion seems to be: perhaps in one segment of the market, but it isn't clear which segment, yet at the same time it is clear that sales are in fact rising to some extent. One measurement shows a 10x increase, much of it very recent. So something interesting is going on, but we don't quite know what or how much.

The best way to answer this would be to get actual sales numbers from Google, and stop guessing using indirect sources.

sounds• 13 years ago

While Google is unlikely to disclose actual sales figures, their marketing department likely has made some effort to figure out what is happening.

My (anecdotal, N=1) evidence is in seeing people who were frustrated by the iPad. The iPad really did a huge amount of volume and I'm hearing from a few people that they wanted something more like a Chromebook.

andrewljohnson2• 13 years ago

Skeptical is not the right word. The following sentence after the quote says there is some evidence. I would call the tone measured and probing, but not skeptical. I admit it's splitting hairs.

dublinben• 13 years ago

Snapchat? Smart watches?

Crito2• 13 years ago

I'm sure many things, though mainly in small volume. ;)

Osiris• 13 years ago

My daughter is using my CR-48 beta Chromebook. She watches Youtube videos, uses Wikipedia, writes stories in Google Docs, and plays Flash-based web games (which are admittedly quite slow on the CR-48's hardware).

There's really not much she's missing out on. I don't have to worry about the drive crashing (docs are saved in Google Drive), her pressing a button she shouldn't, or downloading malware. It's a really great device for children and anyone that spends most of their computer time online.

thirdsight3• 13 years ago

That's fine until your Internet connection is down for 4 days and she's due an assignment that needs to be emailed or printed.

The device is a lemon then.

At least with a normal Mac/PC you can plug a printer in it.

plg• 13 years ago

Eventually (soon I hope) internet connectivity will be truly like electricity. I wonder how many arguments there were 100 yrs ago about how device X or activity Y were useless because "what happens when the electricity goes down"?

Anyway it's a relevant argument today because as you say, we don't want the new "my dog ate my homework" to be "our internet went down and so I couldn't access my work on the cloud"

deadhead• 13 years ago

Write the assignment using docs offline mode. Print it out or email it from school. Or from a friends house. Or from the countless places that have free internet these days.

kumarm2• 13 years ago

I Bought 2 Chrome books.

1 for my daughter. Only purpose she can use is Gmail (email and keep in touch with Aunt's and other relatives overseas). Occasionally she uses youtube and her school website.

1 for My Dad to read new papers online.

Both of them love it and its the only computer they use. I am sure none of them show up in any stats.

Edit: I must add Why I bought Chromebooks for both of them. Their uses cases:

1. Only activity is online. No use with offline computer.

2. Not Tech savvy enough to deal with AntiVirus.

3. Limited Use and hence need cheaper option.

Chromebook fits perfectly in both scenario's.

derefr• 13 years ago

In the first situation, why a Chromebook instead of, say, a tablet? Or an iPod Touch, even? Children don't tend to get the same sort of benefit from full "hard" keyboards that adults do, and there are devices cheaper than Chromebooks that can be similarly locked down.

kumarm2• 13 years ago

Hard to find a stable tablet with big enough screen for 299$.

Also tablet is a distraction since kids would want to play games as soon as they have one in their hands.

Also starting in 2nd Grade (At least in my area) kids are taught typing on computer (Home Rose?).

Crito2• 13 years ago

"Children don't tend to get the same sort of benefit from full "hard" keyboards that adults do"

How do you expect them to learn to, if you don't give them devices with keyboards? Sure, they could wait until that typing class in middle-school, but wouldn't it be better to have them pick it up themselves, much earlier?

pkulak3• 13 years ago

I've been slowly replacing every machine that I'm responsible for supporting (family members who ask me which computer to buy, and to please set it up) with a ChromeOS computer. Usually it's just a case of buying the new laptop and logging them in. Last week I found a used Chromebox for my dad to replace his WinXP desktop. It went well, but I did get bitten. I didn't know he even had a printer, and since you can't plug a printer directly into ChromeOS, we had to buy a new, networked one (which does work amazingly well, btw). I also had to _write_ two Chrome Packaged Apps (fun learning experience, haha) to replace the WinXP camera import wizard he was using and his photo slideshow screensaver.

Despite all that, I'm still happy with the decision. It's a super simple machine that's fast as hell, updates without him even knowing, and is incredibly secure. And the dev APIs are getting reasonably complete pretty quickly, such that I was able to write a little app to import photos off a camera in just a couple days.

sown2• 13 years ago

I also had to _write_ two Chrome Packaged Apps (fun learning experience, haha) to replace the WinXP camera import wizard he was using and his photo slideshow screensaver.

Seems like a good startup idea.

agumonkey2• 13 years ago

If I knew how to make ChromeOs talk to my wifi printer (Lexmark s605, which does not seem to support CloudPrint) I'd free my mom from the "burden" that is her Acer AspireOne (too cramped, too slow) right now.

johnatwork• 13 years ago

I'm actually thinking about going from a MacBook Air and Mac Mini setup to Mac Mini and Chromebook setup.

The limitations of the Chromebook might actually be a good thing to remove distractions for me. I've been trying using Nitrous.io(https://www.nitrous.io), and although I miss not being able to use Vim shortcuts, I've been somewhat productive with it. I'm hesitant to pay for the service now. And I wonder if I I would be better served if I installed Linux instead (even though I hear that you have to do a weird dev boot sequence every time?).

Invitation link to Nitrous.io, if anyone would like to try https://www.nitrous.io/join/X01nmhYHezs

adricnet• 13 years ago

We bought one for her mom. While we won't know for a few months how that experiment works out I was pleased with my experience with it while setting it up for her (adding account, bookmarks, and fooling around). I could write on it, especially as I use Google's office applications more and other web apps, ssh for the rest.

I think the Desktop Apps available in the Chrome Web Store and the accompanying Chrome Apps icon in my Mac's Dock and Windows taskbar are much more interesting developments and I imagine Apple and Microsoft are rather more concerned about that than the netbooks. This is not the first intrusion of browser based applications onto desktop computers (Prism ,etc) but it certainly the boldest and works quite smoothly.

shawndumas• 13 years ago

okay bringing out the anecdotal stories.

firstly, my son used a chromebook and ssh'ed into cloud nine in order to do most of his learning of JavaScript and web development.

secondly, my wife has been using the chromebook the last year to do all of her homeschooling planning, finances, correspondence, and web browsing.

tertiarily, my father who spent the week with us over the holidays, used my wife's chromebook to great effect and is planning on buying one as soon as he gets back.

SyneRyder• 13 years ago

A little anecdote to add - just before Christmas, I ran into a Google rep who was doing customer research at an electronics store, observing customers who tried a Nexus 7 or Chromebook & noting down what they were most interested in (then offering to answer questions about the devices).

Once I told him I was a developer, he loosened up and started talking about their marketing strategy. He said that Google is pushing Chromebooks hard in 2014, and have been frustrated by stores not using the marketing displays they provide. (Apparently my city is a test market.)

Most interesting to me, he said the main use case he was hearing customers ask about was video chat. (Something which probably wouldn't show up in StatCounter numbers.) Customers were most interested in Skype, but if they'd settle for Google Hangouts, then they were particularly interested in the Chromebooks. (He also said many older customers were buying the Nexus 7 purely as a Skype device.)

adolph• 13 years ago

Maybe the relevant question for this audience is "Chromebook: Is It an Addressable Market?"

I wasn't able to find an application in the Chrome Web Store with a price. Maybe the store for proper Chromebooks is different? Sure lots of things are freemium or charge on the services side. However, I was expecting at least a few applications that cost something. Are there enough Chromebook users and do they buy software/services?

VLM5• 13 years ago

"do they buy software/services?"

In my research for a potential purchase, its just chrome, so if it works on your desktop...

So right now, in my family, $200/yr for Ancestry, then there's Evernote, and Airdroid, video streaming services, this stuff adds up to a lot more than the typical 99 cent mobile app market... Probably a couple hundred dollars per year total.

I suspect most of the money snapped up by people providing services to chromebooks don't even know/care that they're providing service to a chromebook, from their perspective its just another chrome browser.

waps• 13 years ago

Here you go :

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tank-hero-laser-wa...

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/they-need-to-be-fe...

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/rick-oshea/maphdck...

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/wordflow/ldjhnilbg...

You even have the sales numbers effectively in there at the moment :

They need to be fed : 1013 users @ 0.99$

Tank hero : 233 users @ 0.99$

Rick O'Shea : 404 users @ 0.99$

Wordflow : 1547 users @ 1.99$ (not a game, a "distraction free" editor)

The Curious Case Of The Chromebook: Is It Really A Hit?

Related Stories