Google announces Chromebook, to be available from June 15

NEW DELHI: Google took the wraps off its Chrome-OS powered notebooks on the second day of Google I/O event in San Francisco on Wednesday. The company said that the netbook "built and optimized for the web" will go on the sale from June 15 in seven countries. Though India is not among these 7 countries, Chromebook is expected to come to the country later this year.

Google has designed Chrome OS keeping the web in mind and most of its functionalities will be available only if the Chromebook is connected to the internet. It will use Google services like Docs and Gmail to provide basic functionality to the users.

"Everything can be saved to the web. I can throw this (Chromebook) into a river, and I won't lose my stuff. No need for virus protection. No annoying updates. No patches. No patches for the patches," said Sundar Pichai, senior VP of Chrome, taking a dig at Microsoft Windows, an operating software that has to be constantly patched for new bug fixes.

At the event on Wednesday Google showed two Chromebooks built by Samsung and Acer. The Samsung one has a 12.1-inch screen, support for 3G & Wi-Fi and over eighth hours of battery time. In the US the W-Fi version will cost $429 while 3G version is priced at $499. The Acer Chromebook, which has an 11.6-inch screen, will cost $399. Both Chromebooks will be powered by dual-core Atom processors made by Intel. Google claims that both will boot-up within eight seconds.

"Every Chromebook has instant turn-on. Up and running in three minutes. If you're one of the 160 million Chrome users, Chrome Sync will fetch all the relevant data to Chromebook within seconds. Each time you open the lid, you will be connected before you can type a sentence," said Pichai.

He added that later Google will enable offline-support for services like Gmail, Cal, and Docs.

Google said that companies will be able to use to Chromebook at a monthly fee of $28 per month. In return, Google will not only provide Chromebook but will also give software and hardware support. The fee for schools and institutions has been fixed at $20 per users.

source: TOI