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$600 Chromebooks are a dangerous development for Microsoft
Among the new hardware launched this week at IFA in Berlin are a couple of premium Chromebooks. Lenovo's $600 Yoga Chromebook brings high-end styling and materials to the Chromebook space, along with well-specced internals and a high quality screen. Dell's $600 Inspiron Chromebook 14 has slightly lower specs but is similarly offering better styling, bigger, better quality screens, and superior specs to the Chromebook space. These systems join a few other premium Chromebooks already out there. HP's Chromebook x2 is a $600 convertible hybrid launched a few months ago, and Samsung has had its Chromebook Plus and Pro systems for more than a year now. And of course, Google's Pixelbook is an astronomically expensive Chrome OS machine. These systems should cause ripples in Redmond.
[...] Lenovo reps told us that its new Chromebook was developed because the company was seeing demand for Chromebooks from users with a bit more disposable income. For example, new college students that had used Chrome OS at high school and families who wanted the robustness Chrome OS offers are looking for machines that are more attractive, use better materials, and are a bit faster and more powerful. The $600 machines fit that role.
And that's why Microsoft should be concerned. This demand shows a few things. Perhaps most significantly of all, it shows that Chrome OS's mix of Web applications, possibly extended with Android applications, is good enough for a growing slice of home and education users. Windows still has the application advantage overall, but the relevance of these applications is diminishing as Web applications continue to improve. A browser and the Web are sufficient to handle the needs of a great many users. No Windows necessary, not even to run the browser. Second, this demand makes clear that exposure to Chrome OS in school is creating sustained interest in, and even commitment to, the platform. High school students are wanting to retain that familiar environment as they move on. The ecosystem they're a part of isn't the Windows ecosystem.
Finally, it also shows that Chrome OS's relatively clean-slate approach (sure, it's Linux underneath, but it's not really being pushed as a way of running traditional Linux software) has advantages that are appealing even to home users. The locked down, highly secure Chrome OS machines require negligible maintenance while being largely immune to most extant malware. And the platform's cloud syncing means that even chores like backups can be largely avoided. Microsoft may be trying to offer the same with Windows, in particular Windows 10 S-Mode, but it's going to take a rather more radical change to Windows to really rival Chrome OS in this regard.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Tuesday September 04 2018, @02:21PM
Maybe you have never heard of Windows 8.
Totally new interface.
People who knew how to use a desktop PC for decades suddenly had to re-learn very basic operations. How to log in. How to log out. How to power off. How to print. The interface has been anything but stable since then. Microsoft begrudgingly was forced to go back to a Start menu again. But not quite a start menu. Then using the new interface as a "start" menu. Then back to a real start menu again and real desktop again. And then the pointless marketing driven cosmetic changes to the UI. Switching to a flat appearance. Changing colors. Changing designs.
And: the ribbon interface. WTF? Where are my pull down menus? The whole point of pull down menus was that GUI applications, like CLI applications might have a hundred commands. But the pull down menus allowed you to hide them, but instantly access them.
I could go on.
I am old enough to remember hearing serious "grown up" people, who wore suits, saying these exact things:
Personal computers are toy computers. They'll never be taken seriously in business. They're just a fad. The microcomputer fad will pass. They're just expensive toys for nerds.
IBM is a powerful multinational corporation. Maybe the most powerful. Do you really think Radio Shake or Apple or Commodore will compete with IBM by selling their toy computers?
I remember Ken Olsen of Digital Equipment: why would anyone need a computer in their home?
Or Bill Gates: the internet is a fad.
Some people just don't see the future and have no vision.
Ten years ago Microsoft was still all powerful and could never stumble. But they fumbled the mobile phone opportunity. Completely missed it. They didn't believe it. At that time I was saying that even though, like IBM before it, Microsoft seemed invincible, that a day was coming soon when Microsoft's best days would be behind it. I think we've already passed that point. Microsoft no longer has the monopoly power it once did. The internet and the web have greatly undermined that. The only value left in Windows is the legacy applications.
As you say, millions of people use Windows every day . . . to do things that don't actually require Windows at all. They just get windows because it comes preinstalled on a PC.
A surprisingly large fraction of the population do little more than use a browser, email, and things they could do on a chromebook. Not all people. But more than you think.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.