Chromebooks are doomed to fail

A month from today, theChromebooks from Samsung and Acer will hit the
street. Google hopes to revolutionize mobile computing and free us from the
shackles of the traditional PC experience, but the Chromebook is going to
fizzle.

Why? Three reasons: culture, functionality, and price.

Culture: The Web has come a long way, and Google is not wrong in suggesting
that everything you want to do can be done on the Web. Well, mostly.

You can use Google Docs (or even Office Web Apps) to replace your
locally-installed productivity software. You can store your files, photos,
music, and more in cloud-based storage options on the Web. You can use
Web-based e-mail. It is pretty much all out there for you.

But, there are some things you can't do strictly on the Web—like play
Portal 2 or Minecraft, and living completely in the cloud takes a
significant culture shift. There is also a huge trust factor with storing
your entire life online, and the small issue of what happens when you can't
get connected to the Internet and your Chromebook is a glorified
paperweight.

Functionality: The Chromebook is functional enough once you get past the
culture shift issues, but it doesn't offer different functionality than you
can already achieve with a laptop. Any netbook or notebook can also use
Google Docs, or Webmail, or the Amazon Cloud Player. In fact, the laptop is
arguably better in this area because you can choose your browser rather than
being limited to Google's Chrome.

The Chromebook is not any lighter or smaller than a standard netbook. It
boots up faster, and has longer battery life than a full notebook, but so do
most netbooks. The difference between the Chromebook and a standard netbook
is that with a netbook you can do everything you can do with a Chromebook,
and you can still do all of things you normally do with a PC.

Price: Essentially, buying a Chromebook is like buying a television that is
only capable of delivering some of the channels, even though there are
televisions available for the same price that can give you all of the
channels. The Chromebooks are going to retail from $350 to $500. Funny thing
about that—at BestBuy.com there are 15 netbooks listed that range from $230
to $530.

Now, if the Chromebook was $100, or even $200, it might be easier to make a
case for the value it provides. But, the Chromebook is basically a
handicapped netbook that costs the same or more than some other netbooks
that have much greater capabilities. netbook that costs the same or more
than some other netbooks that have much greater capabilities.