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| Chromebook: New Era? |
Google reopened yesterday the informational interest of the technological world in its Google I / O with the announcement of the launch of its Chromebook, which for many supposes the culmination of the strategy of the company in an all-in-one solution of hardware, software and services.
Seeing the launch of Chromebook as a simple product, like a computer more, is a very unambitious approach. In fact, it is a complete redefinition, the first serious step in the idea of transforming computing that we know from a computer-centric to a red-centric scheme, with all that that can entail. Obviously, it lacks the fundamental step, the great doubt today: to know if the market is prepared for something like this, whether it will host such devices with enthusiasm or, conversely, will be one of many flops in Google history as company. On the horizon, the presentation of three types of offers: for the consumer market, for companies and for students, with different schemes and prices. In the first case, a payment for the machine of $ 429 in basic version without 3G and $ 499 with 3G (and 100MB of data traffic with the operator of shift - they are consumed in a sigh). In the second, a monthly payment of $ 28 for companies or $ 20 for students that includes maintenance and updating of the system and a guarantee.
The idea is to raise the cloud not as an option, but as an advantage. Something as complex as a series of things that a very significant part of the market perceives today as limitations are seen as something positive, as a guarantee of security, portability or versatility. The change of perception is not simple, even for end users who have spent almost everything in the cloud for years, nor for a corporate market that is still being raised if Google is the partner that they want to entrust the entire operation of their business. In that sense, Chromebook is a very risky product: the presentation in the Google I / O is made before an enthusiastic and apparently convinced public, but the serious approach of purchase is another thing. In fact, in my tests with the product last February, I quickly went on to value positive aspects such as versatility / flexibility (like "I just sit in front of it and feel it as my computer") to limitation Are my files, where is the administrator - it seems that they have improved it - or what happens if the connection falls "). No, it's not a simple transition or it's going to be a two-day thing. After decades of getting used to the market that "the more powerful the better," the Chromebook is such a brutal change of model that my impression is that Google will find more resistance than expected to make Chromebook a success. It's those things that you can analyze analytically, whose advantages you can value or even you can turn into numbers with some solvency ... but that as a decision, it costs you to take more than it seems.
Does Google play with Chromebook a lot? My impression is yes. And I do not mean economically. Of course, great success and a legion of customers paying for cloud services would mean a very positive revenue diversification for a virtually uniproduced company today. But where Google really plays it is in its prestige as a company capable of setting trends. For Chromebook to be considered a success does not count with a sales success. You need a revolution similar to that, for example, Apple could assume with the launch of your iPod or iPhone. Something that really becomes a model for others, that is imitated, that talk about it as a before and after. You need to go from what today are two models (one for me, since Acer as a brand lost all its solvency with the astonishing quality of its Aspire One), to an entire ecosystem of competitors throwing not only machines, but also offers that compete with The Google cloud to the same level. If it is not, if within six months Google is practically alone in this market, we will not be talking about anything other than another flash, another product ahead of time and its market. These kinds of successes, these radical model changes, are not decidedly easy to achieve.
At stake, the actual consideration of the cloud and the validation of your model face to the end user. It is not a bet we see every day.
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