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Why the Google Chromebook will fail?

So Google finally announced the Chromebooks and first units will be shipping in the US and Europe by June 15. Both Samsung and Acer are set to ship out their own variants of the Chromebook.

Here are the two models with their listed specs. They’ve omitted how much HDD storage and RAM will be included in the units.

Yugatech 728x90 Reno7 Series


Samsung Chromebook
Intel Atom Dual-Core Processor
12.1″ (1280×800) 300 nit Display
3.26 lbs / 1.48 kg
8.5 hours of battery life
Built in dual-band WiFi and World-mode 3G (optional)
HD Webcam with noise cancelling microphone
2 USB 2.0 ports
4-in-1 memory card slot
Mini-VGA port
Fullsize Chrome keyboard
Oversize fully-clickable trackpad
Price: $429


Acer Chromebook
Intel Atom Dual-Core Processor
11.6″ HD Widescreen CineCrystal LED-backlit LCD
3.19 lbs | 1.45 kg
6 hours battery life
Built in dual-band WiFi and World-mode 3G (optional)
HD Webcam with noise cancelling microphone
High-Definition Audio Support
2 USB 2.0 ports
4-in-1 memory card slot
HDMI port
Fullsize Chrome keyboard
Oversize fully-clickable trackpad
Price: $349

The biggest draw of the Google Chromebook is its full integration with the Cloud — all the time, anytime.

And that’s where it might just fail.

  • The Cloud does not have 100% uptime guarantee. Amazon’s service recently went down, Google’s Blogger also had an outage the other day and we all know GMail also suffered a number of outages before. People don’t trust the cloud as much as they trust physical hardware.
  • Internet connection is unreliable so your ISP will also play a big role in the over-all user-experience with the Chromebook. And we all know how “unreliable” all our local internet service providers are.
  • The Cloud is expensive. The Chromebook assumes you have unlimited data. In the Philippines, that’s an additional Php1,200 per month. If the life span of your Chromebook is 2 years, that’s Php28,800 on top of the cost of the unit making the total cost of ownership (TCO) much more expensive.

But that scenario is just from a Philippine perspective. It might be totally different elsewhere. So the question is — will you buy a Chromebook instead of a regular netbook?

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Avatar for Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

35 Responses

  1. Avatar for Taylor Miles Taylor Miles says:

    Your logic here is not complete for several reasons:

    1. If internet speed continues to be an issue in the Philippines the entire tech industry in ph will FAIL. Is that what you want? Cloud computing is the future.
    2. You can still use most applications offline including Gmail. and many more to come.
    http://chrome.blogspot.com/2011/08/be-more-productive-with-gmail-offline.html

    http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2011/09/offline-google-docs.html

  2. Avatar for Vic Vic says:

    Chromebook just out in the market today. But since it is still a book with a keyboard, it may not seems to compete with the uprising tablets.

  3. Avatar for Iyan Sommerset Iyan Sommerset says:

    Yey! Cloud computing!!! …beep!

    “You have reached your monthly bandwidth cap limit.”

    Doh!

    • Avatar for techguy techguy says:

      I agree. The unreliable internet connection in the country and the bandwidth capping would definitely be an issue.
      “…Would you like to purchase additional bandwidth?”
      “If you choose no, you can still play solitaire in this computer..” :)

  4. Avatar for g00gle88 g00gle88 says:

    That’s why its only available in 7 countries where people can afford it and the infrastructure is stable.

  5. Avatar for Ed Ed says:

    Thank goodness Philippines != World.

  6. Avatar for gr8.light gr8.light says:

    With a 800mb bandwidth limit here in the Philippines, yes, it will fail.

    • Avatar for boy_fanboy boy_fanboy says:

      Thanks to the bandwidth limit here in the Philippines these “netbooks” will surely fail.

      Goodbye Cloud Computing.
      End of story.

  7. Avatar for boy_fanboy boy_fanboy says:

    not only this thing will fail, i won’t work at all. for the price, definitely, buying one of these isn’t worth it. The specs are almost the same specs found in regular dual-core Atom netbooks except for the omission of HDD storage. I’ll better be off buying a regular netbook than this one.

    It’s hard to live with a computer that will not boot without internet access! That’s one thing I’ll surely hate with those “cloud-based OS”.

    I do not want to connect to the internet just to boot up my OS and play some games while I’m on a place where internet connectivity is out of reach

  8. Avatar for plsburydoughboy plsburydoughboy says:

    Barsy, how did you score one? Are you based in the U.S? Any word if we might get that in our hands sometime soon? Great info, thanks for clarifying.

  9. Avatar for barsy barsy says:

    that 20-28$ subscription rate is optional. It includes HW and SW upgrades. Probably even replacement of unit should you renew. Besides the subscriptions are not for individuals. They have minimum number of units for the subscription plan.

  10. Avatar for barsy barsy says:

    I have the CR48 given by google and I see it as a viable replacement for netbooks. Pretty much geared towards business that are online all the time and great for people who just use it for browsing, email or social networking.
    Boots up in about 3-5 seconds, 6-7hrs battery life. if it’s damage, just get another one and log in to your registered google account and you’re back where you left off. Basically acts as a thin client.

  11. Avatar for g g says:

    what’s the sense of this if u can get all the function with a regular notebook/netbook/tablet at less cost and less restriction/ net connection dependency??

    is it the advantage with the speed/performance??

    really what’s the point of this?someone please enlighten me.

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