Chromebase
A Chromebook is a laptop running Chrome OS as its operating system. The devices are designed to be used primarily while connected to the Internet, with most applications and data residing “in the cloud”. A Chromebook is an example of a thin client. The first Chromebooks for sale, by Acer Inc. and Samsung, were announced at the Google I/O conference in May 2011 and began shipping on June 15, 2011. Lenovo, Hewlett Packard and Google itself entered the market in early 2013. In December 2013, Samsung launched a Samsung Chromebook specifically for the Indian market that employed the company’s Exynos 5 Dual core processor. In addition to laptop models, a desktop version, called a Chromebox, was introduced in May 2012, and an “all-in-one” device was introduced in January 2014 by LG Electronics. Chromebooks are primarily sold both directly from Google and from the company’s retail partners. By 2012, schools had become the largest category of customer. That October, Google broadened its marketing strategy to include first-time computer users and households seeking an additional computer. Critical reaction to the device was initially skeptical, with some reviewers, such as then New York Times technology columnist David Pogue, unfavorably comparing the value proposition of Chromebooks with that of more fully featured laptops running the Microsoft Windows operating system. That complaint dissipated later in reviews of machines from Acer and Samsung that were priced lower. In February 2013, Google announced and began shipping the Chromebook Pixel, a higher-spec machine with a high-end price tag. In October 2012, Simon Phipps, writing in InfoWorld, said, “The Chromebook line is probably the most successful Linux desktop/laptop computer we’ve seen to date”. From January to November 2013, 1.76 million Chromebooks were sold in U.S. business-to-business channels.
