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I came across a well-written, quite flattering long-read article on WIRED today. It’s premise?
Chromebooks are about to transform laptop design.
It is a great read for anyone, but especially for Chromebook users. I can’t express how much I enjoyed reading it. So much so, in fact, I shared it on Google+ before I even finished the article.
The article gives a great history of the platform and articulates, very well, where we at Chrome Unboxed see all of this heading. Unique devices, across multiple price brackets, with multiple takes on what makes a computer a computer.
The possibilities are endless, and the author gets it totally.
Yet, in the middle of the article (it is a bit long, and I know there are some folks who just won’t read all that) there is a little nugget thrown in that is incredibly exciting! Especially around here where hints of new devices get us salivating a bit.
I’ll quote the section here:
Computer industry execs believe Chrome OS has come into its own, that people will now choose it over Windows for reasons other than price. For many new customers, says Stacy Wolff, HP’s global head of design, “their first device was a smartphone. And they look for the cleanliness, the simplicity, the stability of what we see in those devices.” That’s the thinking behind the sharp and business-like HP Chromebook 13, the company’s new $500 laptop. Wolf sounds eager to continue down the fancy road, too: When I ask why the Chromebook 13’s not as nice as the Windows-powered Spectre 13, which is one of the best-looking and lightest laptops ever made, he pauses to make sure he’s not giving too much away. “I can’t talk about the future, but there’s nothing that stops us from continuing to go and revolutionize that space.” The $1,000 Chromebook used to be a silly sideshow, Google’s way of overshooting. Soon enough, it’ll be a totally viable purchase.
So much is being communicated here.
Chrome OS is becoming a viable platform, not an afterthought, for manufacturers.
Industry execs are seeing that Chromebooks are becoming viable not just for being cheap, but for filling a real need.
HP seems to be open to working on a premium, revolutionary device or devices in the Chrome OS ecosystem. That language almost feels like they are already headed in that direction.
What could HP be working on? Who knows! But it is crazy to think that a company as large and resourced as HP is seeing Chrome OS not simply as a second option to Windows, but as a platform worthy of doing revolutionary things with. We expect technological leaps with Windows devices and Macs, but Chromebooks have been relegated to rehashed ideas and hardware for a long time.
Seems like that is all changing now. We knew it would. It was just a matter of time.
Go ahead, buckle in and read that article here. I promise it is worth the time.
