What is a Chromebook? How Google's laptops outsold Apple's

recent figures have marked 2020 as the first year that sales of google chromebooks have outstripped those of apple max so what's so special about chromebooks that's caused their rise in popularity and what are the chances that chrome os one day takes over from windows as the market leader here's how it happened the very first chromebook was unveiled by now ceo sundar pichai at google's input output conference in may 2011. the chrome browser was already three years old and was quickly gaining ground on its microsoft rival but the brand new selling point was chrome os the operating system that characterized chromebooks and ran entirely off of google's cloud-based online services this means that all applications and programs are run over the internet think google docs and gmail rather than word and outlook and the user interface has been compared to using an android tablet but with a keyboard a chromebook's constant communication with the internet requires the latest software in order to keep functioning and so all laptops automatically receive software updates for the duration of their lifespan the first models of chromebook were produced by samsung and acer in june 2011. priced between four and five hundred dollars but samsung really stepped up their game with the release of the series three in 2012. priced at just 249 and with a build quality that blew away its windows competitors at the same price point such was the success of the series 3 but it spent a year as amazon's best-selling laptop and chromebooks became the go-to for web surfers on a budget making them ideal for students but google wasn't satisfied with their status as a value proposition or the fact that other tech companies were able to make money by providing their own hardware and so in 2013 came the release of the chromebook pixel a laptop designed by google itself and pitched at the higher end of electronic consumers the basic model was priced at thirteen hundred dollars comparable to apple macbooks and the top-end microsoft ultrabooks unfortunately that proved too high a price point for an underdeveloped operating system that offered limited capabilities compared to its rivals but still at an eye-watering price and the pixel was discontinued in 2016 casting doubt over the future of chromebooks so why did some consumers need convincing of the laptop's features well upon their initial release critics were fast to point out chromebook's inability to host several well-known programs like photoshop and microsoft excel and from a specification standpoint the early devices offered just two gigabytes of ram and 16 gigabytes of disk storage fairly embarrassing figures compared to its rivals but of course that's because of its heavy reliance on the cloud speaking of which some users were unhappy with their chromebook's limitations while offline and found the dependence on an internet connection to be a real drawback early chromebooks weren't even able to download drivers for printers meaning a brand new printer would need to be purchased alongside your new laptop but to google's credit most of these issues have since been addressed the expansion of the google suite including docs and sheets has helped to bridge the gap of missing programs that was until 2016 when the google play store previously only intended for phones and tablets was made accessible to chromebooks giving users access to mobile versions of some of their favorite applications like photoshop express and adobe lightroom not to mention microsoft office meanwhile chromebook's existing programs have greatly improved their functionality while offline and google have also worked to make printing from their devices a lot easier with most chromebooks able to connect via wi-fi or usb cable to your desired printer and as you may know the pixel laptop range refused to stay knocked down forever 2017 saw the release of the versatile pixel book a device able to squeeze in all the features of both a tablet and a laptop and this was followed up by the more moderately priced pixel book go from 649 which was widely praised throughout the industry for its high specification impressive battery life and eye-catching design so with the pixel book under its belt and the availability of more budget-friendly options from the likes of lenovo and hp chromebooks look like the rising star in the laptop world a total of 30 million units were sold in 2020 a figure that looks set to rise as their popularity increases with both schools and businesses while chrome os might not be for everyone the fact that google claims their automatic updates will make your chromebook faster and more secure as it ages suggests they could be worth trying out and that's how it happened thanks for watching [Music] you

Channel: How It Happened

Views: 1,517

Keywords: google chromebook, chromebook, chromebook 2021, chromebook vs laptop, chromebook vs macbook, what is a chromebook, how do Chromebooks work, what do Chromebooks do, are Chromebooks worth it, best chromebooks 2021, chromebook windows 10, chromebook microsoft office

Id: qRxEm9kQkdA

Length: 5min 14sec (314 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 26 2021