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.

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: $429PHP 25,176INR 36,358EUR 409CNY 3,122

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: $349PHP 20,481INR 29,578EUR 332CNY 2,540

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 Php1,200USD 20INR 1,734EUR 19CNY 149 per month. If the life span of your Chromebook is 2 years, that’s Php28,800USD 491INR 41,604EUR 467CNY 3,574 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?

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.

https://www.yugatech.com

35 Comments

Charles says:

14 years ago

Palagi ako nag iinternet at 85% ng oras ko sa computer ay sa internet na. Given the specs mukhang mahal to pero kung nasa 24k-29k ang price maybe!
- Reply
aron says:

14 years ago

i feel it will fail talaga kasi mas manda pa yung specs ng netbook na naka windows at sa mahal nya, sana naglaptop ka na lang na multifunction kesa sa dito.
- Reply
Jam. says:

14 years ago

This will be useless especially when you’re on vacation and the internet is not available on that region
- Reply
techguy says:

14 years ago

Cloud computing will be the trend of the future. But as of this time given the current situation of our country this concept is very challenging if not impossible. Perhaps 10-20 yrs from now.
For now nothing beats the good ‘ol computing.
- Reply
plsburydoughboy says:

14 years ago

Let me go in as one of the few for it. We have to buy the additional PH P 28,800 if we use internet regularly anyway. For the majority of people who only use their PCs for Facebook, and webworkers like me, this may be ideal.

Of course, Google might seal the deal locally if those hardware/data/service contracts they’re offering to universities in the States now would be rolled out here too.
- Reply
Marcus says:

14 years ago

I’d like to see how Google will handle security, since this is a critical aspect of having all your data in the cloud. We’ve seen lapses in security lately (*cough* Sony *cough*) so being able to ensure users that all their personal data are safe is of the utmost importance.
- Reply
Jhay says:

14 years ago

If I were living in South Korea or some other country with a fast and reliable Internet connections then I’d consider getting a Chromebook.

But here in the Philippines? I’d wait for a couple decades at least!
- Reply
AAnon says:

14 years ago

Which is why they’re doing offline access for google docs, gmail, & calendar: http://goo.gl/Is9xB
- Reply
Anne says:

14 years ago

People expect something unique…might be this would reach
- Reply
Messie says:

14 years ago

First thing na naisip ko is that they might have intentionally omitted HDDs for these. If they are 100% cloud dependent, then the OS will be run via cloud. Thus, you cannot run this chromebook without internet connection. Baka sa BIOS pa lang, nagcoconnect na siya with Google’s cloud server to launch the OS. All the apps to, including the browser, document editing, games, etc. will be run via cloud na rin siguro.
Hmmmm.. true, this is very futuristic, pero baka this is too ahead of it’s time pa.
- Reply

Benchmark says:

14 years ago

yup, i agree with you….masyado pa syang futuristic…pero maybe yan din reason why Smart launches their fast LTE (am i correct) network…maybe google requested that :)

Pero I suggest they develope first SSD, para bumaba na yung price, at bumilis na yung drive access :)

Plus make their OS simple installations…as in kahit di ka geek sa computer, eh ma-install mo…but then again, it depends talaga sa user yun. :)