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Is there really any other use case for a chromebook given how cheap a decently-spec'd laptop is these days? I'm confused as to HPs strategy of making an upscale

Is there really any other use case for a chromebook given how cheap a decently-spec'd laptop is these days? I'm confused as to HPs strategy of making an upscale chromebook - who is the target market?

lallysingh 10y ago
Maintenance. Why maintain a copy of Windows when all you use is the web? Antivirus, security, app and driver updates, bloatware shipped preinstalled, etc. Here you just pull it out of the box, log in, and it's good to go until the battery or other hardware wear out.
- quanticle 10y ago
  Well, that's fine for nontechnical users, but nontechnical users aren't buying high-end laptops anyway. High-end ($800+) laptops are bought by developers, sysadmins, or other people who need real native applications, which precludes Chromebooks. So these machines are in a weird market segment where they're too expensive for the vast majority of Chromebook buyers, but not capable enough to steal marketshare from, e.g. Thinkpads and Macbooks.
  - danans 10y ago
    For what anecdata's worth, I see a huge number of non-technical people who buy high-end laptops (specifically Macs), and as far as I can tell, it maps fairly well to the individual's socioeconomic status. Everyone from baby-boomer parents to social workers. It's why you see so many Macs and iPhones as product placement ads within shows whose target markets dwarf the techie population: http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-product-placements-in-tv-and-movies-2012-8 http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-product-placements-in-t...
    - gambiting 10y ago
      Yes, but I think a non-technical person who buys a $1000 macbook is extremely unlikely to buy a $1000 chromebook. The main appeal is obviously the brand and colours(my sister wants a new macbook purely because there is a rose gold one, she doesn't care about specs). A Chromebook is no different(in their eyes) from a $200 Acer - it's a "non-apple" laptop so it doesn't matter how well made it is or how great it performs.
  - chatmasta 10y ago
    My argument is that developers do not need high end notebooks. Unless your development work requires specialized hardware (e.g. iOS development requires a Mac), there is little need to develop locally. Most of the time, you're targeting servers anyway. Why not develop on a server too? Also, when you start a new project, you can pick a cloud development box that matches exactly the specs you want, whereas you're still stuck with the same laptop from project to project. So in that sense, cloud development offers more flexibility than local development. And it saves you money on expensive laptops! There's also the self-satisfaction of knowing you can code anything with any $100 laptop and an Internet connection.
    - keenerd 10y ago
      I use a Chromebook as my main dev machine these days. It is wonderful to finally have a fanless laptop, a 15 hour battery life and masses under 1kg. Except I nuked ChromeOS for real Linux and carry a few gigs of documentation to make internet optional. Some devs get it and see how it could work. They mostly get hung up on the keyboard, the lack of home/end/pgup/pgdn. (Readline keybinds are my best friend now.) Other devs are flabergasted that you can do anything of value on a machine without at least 16GB ram and multiple monitors.
    - copperx 10y ago
      That's fine if you're coding without an IDE and if you can tolerate low-resolution screen. I used your extremely tolerant of such things, but now I'm 30 and thus a senior citizen in the tech world. I need my creature comforts.
    - quanticle 10y ago
      How much are you spending per month on that cloud dev box? What do you do for Android development?
    - icebraining 10y ago
      And it saves you money on expensive laptops! Are you accounting for the cost of the cloud dev box?
      - 10y ago
  - lallysingh 10y ago
    Why wouldn't non-technical users buy high end laptops? Even just for a metal casing, better appearance, or performance in day to day use (e.g. gmail), battery life, screen, etc., higher end laptops have plenty of ways to appeal to non-technical users. A lot of it likely comes down to price sensitivity of the purchaser, which isn't linked to their level of technical skill.
  - lazylizard 10y ago
    why do sysadmins need high end laptops? all they do is ssh?
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
shirro 10y ago
Home users aren't the target audience which is some of the confusion. And probably not developers either even if the capabilities suit many web/linux types. There likely aren't enough to make serious money. People mainly see chromebooks in retail and think of them as cheap gifts for the grandparents so they don't have to do computer support and that is missing the bigger picture. What they may not have seen is the truck loads of chromebooks being sold to schools where low maintenance and security are as valuable as the price. The high end Chromebooks for Work are part of a push into the enterprise market. Chromebooks have a decent security model. The storage is encrypted. The os is signed. The system processes run in jails where possible and the browser processes are sandboxed. You don't have to worry about someone picking up some media on the street and plugging it in and installing a keylogger. Combine that with extreme portability and low maintenance costs and if you are the sort of org that can move a lot of things to the cloud or remote sessions then there is likely a business case for them. I guess we will have to wait and see. Back in 2014 there were stories that Woolworths, the biggest Australian retailer, was rolling out 8000 Chrome OS devices. That is the sort of market these higher spec devices will be targeting.

Is there really any other use case for a chromebook given how cheap a decently-spec'd laptop is these days? I'm confused as to HPs strategy of making an upscale chromebook - who is the target market?

lallysingh 10y ago

Maintenance. Why maintain a copy of Windows when all you use is the web? Antivirus, security, app and driver updates, bloatware shipped preinstalled, etc. Here you just pull it out of the box, log in, and it's good to go until the battery or other hardware wear out.

quanticle 10y ago
Well, that's fine for nontechnical users, but nontechnical users aren't buying high-end laptops anyway. High-end ($800+) laptops are bought by developers, sysadmins, or other people who need real native applications, which precludes Chromebooks. So these machines are in a weird market segment where they're too expensive for the vast majority of Chromebook buyers, but not capable enough to steal marketshare from, e.g. Thinkpads and Macbooks.
- danans 10y ago
  For what anecdata's worth, I see a huge number of non-technical people who buy high-end laptops (specifically Macs), and as far as I can tell, it maps fairly well to the individual's socioeconomic status. Everyone from baby-boomer parents to social workers. It's why you see so many Macs and iPhones as product placement ads within shows whose target markets dwarf the techie population: http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-product-placements-in-tv-and-movies-2012-8 http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-product-placements-in-t...
  - gambiting 10y ago
    Yes, but I think a non-technical person who buys a $1000 macbook is extremely unlikely to buy a $1000 chromebook. The main appeal is obviously the brand and colours(my sister wants a new macbook purely because there is a rose gold one, she doesn't care about specs). A Chromebook is no different(in their eyes) from a $200 Acer - it's a "non-apple" laptop so it doesn't matter how well made it is or how great it performs.
- chatmasta 10y ago
  My argument is that developers do not need high end notebooks. Unless your development work requires specialized hardware (e.g. iOS development requires a Mac), there is little need to develop locally. Most of the time, you're targeting servers anyway. Why not develop on a server too? Also, when you start a new project, you can pick a cloud development box that matches exactly the specs you want, whereas you're still stuck with the same laptop from project to project. So in that sense, cloud development offers more flexibility than local development. And it saves you money on expensive laptops! There's also the self-satisfaction of knowing you can code anything with any $100 laptop and an Internet connection.
  - keenerd 10y ago
    I use a Chromebook as my main dev machine these days. It is wonderful to finally have a fanless laptop, a 15 hour battery life and masses under 1kg. Except I nuked ChromeOS for real Linux and carry a few gigs of documentation to make internet optional. Some devs get it and see how it could work. They mostly get hung up on the keyboard, the lack of home/end/pgup/pgdn. (Readline keybinds are my best friend now.) Other devs are flabergasted that you can do anything of value on a machine without at least 16GB ram and multiple monitors.
  - copperx 10y ago
    That's fine if you're coding without an IDE and if you can tolerate low-resolution screen. I used your extremely tolerant of such things, but now I'm 30 and thus a senior citizen in the tech world. I need my creature comforts.
  - quanticle 10y ago
    How much are you spending per month on that cloud dev box? What do you do for Android development?
  - icebraining 10y ago
    And it saves you money on expensive laptops! Are you accounting for the cost of the cloud dev box?
    - 10y ago
- lallysingh 10y ago
  Why wouldn't non-technical users buy high end laptops? Even just for a metal casing, better appearance, or performance in day to day use (e.g. gmail), battery life, screen, etc., higher end laptops have plenty of ways to appeal to non-technical users. A lot of it likely comes down to price sensitivity of the purchaser, which isn't linked to their level of technical skill.
- lazylizard 10y ago
  why do sysadmins need high end laptops? all they do is ssh?
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

shirro 10y ago

Home users aren't the target audience which is some of the confusion. And probably not developers either even if the capabilities suit many web/linux types. There likely aren't enough to make serious money. People mainly see chromebooks in retail and think of them as cheap gifts for the grandparents so they don't have to do computer support and that is missing the bigger picture. What they may not have seen is the truck loads of chromebooks being sold to schools where low maintenance and security are as valuable as the price. The high end Chromebooks for Work are part of a push into the enterprise market. Chromebooks have a decent security model. The storage is encrypted. The os is signed. The system processes run in jails where possible and the browser processes are sandboxed. You don't have to worry about someone picking up some media on the street and plugging it in and installing a keylogger. Combine that with extreme portability and low maintenance costs and if you are the sort of org that can move a lot of things to the cloud or remote sessions then there is likely a business case for them. I guess we will have to wait and see. Back in 2014 there were stories that Woolworths, the biggest Australian retailer, was rolling out 8000 Chrome OS devices. That is the sort of market these higher spec devices will be targeting.