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Just like with Android, when you flood the market with bargain basement devices (they're showing up at Walmart for $179) this kind of stuff happens. Initial sa

Just like with Android, when you flood the market with bargain basement devices (they're showing up at Walmart for $179) this kind of stuff happens. Initial sales are one thing, though. Retention is another. Most everyone I know that has purchased a Chromebook has hated it for a variety of reasons. The one that loves it is a friend that is firmly wrapped up in the Googlesphere. I almost think it's scary how well Google is doing in the education market. They've done a frighteningly good job at getting younger kids to equate "the internet" with Google products. Kids don't know about email - they know Gmail. They know YouTube. They know a little about Google Docs and Google Drive, since that's what their schools are using. And more so, they know that they need a Google account to get into some apps. Like Pokemon Go. (although you can make a trainer club account, kids just want to click and have it work.) The next few years should be interesting.

knz 10y ago
I don't know what it was like in America, but as a kid in New Zealand during the 80's/90's Apple was synonymous with desktop computers in an education setting. My understanding is that Apple deliberately targeted the education sector. Aren't Google just doing the same thing? My wife is a teacher in the US and has only ever been issued macbooks so I assume Apple is still a big player in education, but it's a lot cheaper to hand out 20 chromebooks to a classroom than it is to do the same with Apple products.
- jrnichols 10y ago
  > but it's a lot cheaper to hand out 20 chromebooks to a classroom than it is to do the same with Apple products. initially it might be. But return on investment studies still wind up favoring the Apple stuff in the long run. Google is doing the same thing, yes, but it's different now. They're targeting education and selling themselves as a complete all you need package. desktop OS, hosting all the email, all the files, all the software, everything.
mark_l_watson 10y ago
I didn't know that retention for Chromebooks was poor. Surprising. I suppose that it depends strongly for what Chromebooks are used for. As a developer, I work largely on a large memory, multi-core remote server so if I like the SSH shell support, then I am happy. I really like my 1080p screen Chromebook, and my iPad Pro - so much so that I don't need to reach for a Linux laptop very often. I agree with you about Google's grip on the education market. I would like to see kids using Raspberry Pis, learning to code, doing electronics experiments, etc.
- jrnichols 10y ago
  At least among the group I know, it's mostly the one guy that's a huge Google product fan that loves his Chromebook. The rest of them have felt that the novelty has worn off. They're great if you're wrapped up in Google-everything. The others have also realized that they can pick up a fairly recent refurb MacBook Air for just a little bit more than they'd find a decent PC laptop for. I still have an old 13" 2011 macbook pro that feels almost like a new machine now that I threw an SSD in the thing. add Xcode and maybe macports I have all of the command line love that I can shake a stick at. I'm still a hobby sysadmin and have always been happy with Terminal in OS X. Add Transmit for when I'm lazy and need to move files, and I'm happy too. :)
- zigzigzag 10y ago
  The problem with the Chromebook model is that most webapps suck, with very few exceptions (like: GMail, Google Maps, etc). So they're fine until that one day in the year you decide you'd like to make some nice newsletter for that club you just joined, or decide you'd like to play that game you heard about, or decide to do pretty much anything except reading blogs and sending email. Then you discover that Google Apps is the best of a poor bunch and that your computer is much, much more limited than you thought you needed.

knz 10y ago

I don't know what it was like in America, but as a kid in New Zealand during the 80's/90's Apple was synonymous with desktop computers in an education setting. My understanding is that Apple deliberately targeted the education sector. Aren't Google just doing the same thing? My wife is a teacher in the US and has only ever been issued macbooks so I assume Apple is still a big player in education, but it's a lot cheaper to hand out 20 chromebooks to a classroom than it is to do the same with Apple products.

jrnichols 10y ago
> but it's a lot cheaper to hand out 20 chromebooks to a classroom than it is to do the same with Apple products. initially it might be. But return on investment studies still wind up favoring the Apple stuff in the long run. Google is doing the same thing, yes, but it's different now. They're targeting education and selling themselves as a complete all you need package. desktop OS, hosting all the email, all the files, all the software, everything.

mark_l_watson 10y ago

I didn't know that retention for Chromebooks was poor. Surprising. I suppose that it depends strongly for what Chromebooks are used for. As a developer, I work largely on a large memory, multi-core remote server so if I like the SSH shell support, then I am happy. I really like my 1080p screen Chromebook, and my iPad Pro - so much so that I don't need to reach for a Linux laptop very often. I agree with you about Google's grip on the education market. I would like to see kids using Raspberry Pis, learning to code, doing electronics experiments, etc.

jrnichols 10y ago
At least among the group I know, it's mostly the one guy that's a huge Google product fan that loves his Chromebook. The rest of them have felt that the novelty has worn off. They're great if you're wrapped up in Google-everything. The others have also realized that they can pick up a fairly recent refurb MacBook Air for just a little bit more than they'd find a decent PC laptop for. I still have an old 13" 2011 macbook pro that feels almost like a new machine now that I threw an SSD in the thing. add Xcode and maybe macports I have all of the command line love that I can shake a stick at. I'm still a hobby sysadmin and have always been happy with Terminal in OS X. Add Transmit for when I'm lazy and need to move files, and I'm happy too. :)
zigzigzag 10y ago
The problem with the Chromebook model is that most webapps suck, with very few exceptions (like: GMail, Google Maps, etc). So they're fine until that one day in the year you decide you'd like to make some nice newsletter for that club you just joined, or decide you'd like to play that game you heard about, or decide to do pretty much anything except reading blogs and sending email. Then you discover that Google Apps is the best of a poor bunch and that your computer is much, much more limited than you thought you needed.