Friday, December 10, 2010

A Closer Look At The Chrome Notebook

So, in today's Google News, there were numerous posts and articles about the Google Chrome Notebook. It seems worthwhile to link to a couple especially informative or insightful write-ups and summarize the initial reaction to Google's hardware released with the beta of Chrome OS.

Of the eleven long-ish accounts of people's experiences with the Cr-48 I read, along with twenty or thirty shorter 'reviews' I skimmed, the four linked below as recommended reading rose to the top. Some of the shorter reviews made me think, "why did they request a Chrome Notebook, and why did Google send them one?", but the article by Brier Dudley in Seattle wins some type of award for clearly not understanding what Chrome OS is or how it was built when he says:
"...I didn't see a way to change the browser to Explorer, Firefox or Safari..."
Recommended reading of early experiences with the Cr-48:
Observations from reading about people's experiences with the Cr-48 and the Chrome OS:
  1. One of the most challenging common activities or tasks on the Chrome Notebook appears to be playing flash videos.
  2. Jon Stokes was disappointed with the screen quality, saying it was "...the cheapest, poorest-quality LCD that I can remember using..."
  3. Jon also felt a Chrome OS notebook with higher quality hardware would be a perfect alternative to his wife's MacBook Air.
  4. Danny Sullivan points out that Google wants the pilot program testers to use the Chrome Notebook as their primary computer, not just for casual use or as a replacement for a netbook which is only used for miscellaneous mobile purposes. Many testers seemed to have a 'meh' impression of the notebook for even casual or infrequent use, much less for use as their primary computer. Too bad Google will probably let those people keep the Chrome Notebook even though they don't use it much, if at all, after the first day or two. It sounded like Larry Dignan from ZDNet is giving it to his seven year old daughter to play with, as opposed to him using it. That may or may not have value to Google, although the primary purpose of sending Cr-48s to journalists was likely to generate buzz rather than to get useful data for the pilot program. Danny did a thorough job of attempting to use the Cr-48 as a replacement for his primary computer, to the extent possible.
  5. Many reviewers complained about the hardware not being top quality or as good as they expected or would have liked. In addition to the screen quality being dinged by Jon Stokes, the weight got complaints (heavier than a MacBook Air or other current netbooks/laptops with a 12" screen), Jason Kincaid says, "...The mouse trackpad -- or at least, the software running the trackpad -- is a complete turd..." (although Jon S says "...The large, clickable trackpad is great...") and Michael Calore from Wired said the Cr-48, "...definitely feels underpowered..." and that the "...Atom processor inside will probably need a boost before Chrome OS hardware hits the shelves..."
  6. Rafe Needleman from CNET doesn't appear to plan on using the Cr-48 as his primary computer but indicates it may have a bright future if Google does a skillful job of developing and c0-marketing it. He says, "...This Chrome notebook is not a fun computer...But it is an important new platform that's going to be easier for user[s] to get into and straightforward to develop for..."

My takeaway from the articles and posts about people's first-day experiences with Google's Chrome Notebook is that very few tech journalists will use it as their primary computer and that its target market is casual computer users rather than geeks, tech enthusiasts and corporate employees.

Google would do well to get thousands of Chrome Notebooks into the hands of middle school students. That would do two things.
  1. Start building a new generation of "full-size keyboard" computer users who live on the web and don't care about the features and capabilities their Chrome Notebook doesn't have compared to a standard Linux/Mac/Windows laptop. These kids will develop an interesting digital lifestyle based on a combination of smartphones and Chrome OS notebooks.
  2. Kick start a whole new world of apps to meet the needs of a wide variety of use cases and launch a whole new generation of app co-developers (middle school Chrome OS users collaborating with app developers whose ages range from middle school to thirty-something).

Other long-ish reviews in case you want more than the four listed above:

Update 1: This blog was revised to include some articles from 11 Dec 2010.

**********
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)