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We’ve talked at length about the changing landscape of Chromebooks and all the exciting things we expect to see in 2017. It seems there are some very influential people in the tech community who feel the same.
Those of you who have read articles from Chrome Unboxed know that we have very high hopes for what is coming in the Chrome OS ecosystem over the next 6-12 months. You can read about some of that here. You can also check this out, too.
Anyway, since you are here, we wanted to quickly share what some other, very influential experts have to say about the coming changes and updates to Chromebooks and Chrome OS. With Samsung leading the charge via the Samsung Chromebook Plus and Pro, many manufacturers are poised to get involved in what looks to be an incredibly active year for Chromebooks.
Check out what is being said around the internet:
The Chromebook is going from being just a laptop to something that is a lot more versatile and dynamic … such that OEMs can produce many great devices.
We have put a lot of investment into the touch UI and making touch a great experience on the Chromebook. You’re going to continue to see that happen. And what that’s going to do is it’s going to open up the possibilities for OEMs to have an even wider variety of form factors.
You may expect everything from detachables to tablets based on Chrome OS down the line.
— Rajen Sheth, director of product for Android and Chrome for education and enterprise
So if you’ve been wondering where all the Android tablets have gone — here’s a guess. They’ve been held back because it seems like something better is coming: Chrome OS tablets with a real desktop browser and real Android apps. That kind of system probably has a better chance of success competing with the iPad — but let’s not set Android’s sights quite that high yet. A more reasonable target: undercutting the Surface and all its clones on the low end of the market.
— Dieter Bohn, The Verge
But the big difference between Chrome OS tablets and the Surface — and indeed the iPad — will be the price. Just like Chromebooks, you can expect Chrome OS tablets to be incredibly affordable, making them ideal for education and consumers on a budget.
This should worry Apple, which has been fighting to make the iPad a big presence in classrooms. According to recent rumors, the company is working on a new 9.7-inch model aimed at education and enterprise that will use older components in an effort to be more affordable.
— Killian Bell, Cult of Mac
Chrome, since its infancy, has been mainly education, mainly cost-driven, largely bought-on-bid kind of devices. What’s going to play over the next few months is, Chromebooks are going to move out of this education-almost-exclusive channel focus, into retail and into commercial.
As you think about the evolving behaviors and usage trends, paired with the fact that you have a big app ecosystem that is now accessible, we think that an audience in retail that’s probably 30 and under is the primary target, all the way down to kids that gain their first exposure to a Chromebook in their schools.
You can’t avoid or ignore the idea that a generation of people have kind of grown up with Google, and that they’ve used the Play Store, they’ve used Docs, they’ve used [Google] search,” he says. So they’re actually entrenched in Google, and the best way to make use of many of the things that people have grown up with is a Chromebook.
— Jeffrey Meredith, Lenovo VP Android & Chrome Computing
Although Android apps launched on a small number of Chromebooks last year, Meredith expects them to become much more broadly available in 2017. This will make Chromebooks more interesting to a mainstream audience, he says, because all the apps and services people have on their phones will become accessible on a Chromebook. Meanwhile, the lack of a traditional PC experience will be less of a problem for younger users who’ve grown up on cloud services like Netflix and Facebook.
— Jared Newman, Fast Company
2017 has just begun and we’ll see more Chromebooks from more companies throughout the year. So far, we like what we see because it means that companies are more serious about selling Chromebooks for people who want to buy one as a luxury purchase or for a better machine to work from.
— Jerry Hildenbrand, Android Central
As we’ve said before, more form factors, better choices, and increased visibility are all on the very near horizon for Chromebooks. We’ve been tracking this possible trajectory since May of 2016 and are extremely excited to see major news outlets starting to really take notice of all the great things coming to Chromebooks in 2017.
This period has the chance to be a watershed time for the entire Chrome OS ecosystem, and we can’t wait to watch it all happen and report every moment!
