On the podcast, I call the addition of Android apps a welcome addition. While the Chromebooks have slots for external hard drives, USB sticks and the like, the only way to add software to the computer is via downloading from the Google app stores. This is where apps like MS Word, Skype, Dashlane, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom were missing in action. The lack of software in the Google Chrome Web store was also an issue. The bad news: you have to be online, generally, to use them. The low price also entices consumers and IT departments. "In the US, it's been a K-12 story," says IDC analyst Linn Huang, of schools dumping their historical purchases of Apple computers. (Remember there's a huge price disparity between Chromebooks selling in the $US250-$US300 range and Macbooks, which start at around $1,000.) According to market research firm IDC, just over 3 million Chromebooks sold in the second quarter in the US, compared to 1.8 million Macs and 12 million Windows PCs. Earlier this year they surpassed Apple MacBooks as the second best-selling kind of computers, after Windows. Google's Chromebooks have struck a chord with students. Think of a Chromebook as a glorified tablet, a small computer with a physical keyboard, that's light and easy to tote around. On several Chromebooks (only four models will be available in the fall for Google Play Store) Android will also be optimised for running on computers, with mouse and touch-screen. "This is a big deal."Īndroid software geared to run on phones and tablets is the dominant mobile operating system, with an 86 per cent market share, according to market tracker Gartner. In the Play Store, Philips found several productivity apps he was interested in and downloaded them to the Flip. "I've had several Chromebooks, but while they did some things nicely, I was disappointed. "It's a game changer," says Mike Phillips, CEO of Sense, a Boston-based company that offers a device for energy management. Google's Chromebook has struck a chord with school students - and parents who are glad to pay as little as $US250. We offer a sneak peek of the new Chromebook experience on this week's extended weekend edition of the #TalkingTech podcast, where we all got to play around with an Asus Chromebook Flip C100 equipped with a beta edition of the Google Play Store. This is an answer to one of the main issues with the machines – that many popular apps like Microsoft Word, Skype and the Dashlane password manager haven't been available for use with Chromebooks, which starts as low as $US250 ($A330). Lacking in working with many popular software programs, the Google Play Store – and 2.2 million Android apps – are coming to Chromebooks. Google's ultra-affordable Chromebooks are set for major changes in the coming few months.
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