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Speaking as someone who's had the original (CR-48) Chromebook since it was sent to me, this device has steadily gotten better with each upgrade and is my family's "go to" computer in the living room.

It's fast, light and doesn't generate heat on your lap. It may not be the fastest horse in the race but it certainly requires the least amount of maintenance. I'm on the web in seconds, doing what I typically use a computer for. My other "real" computers require a lengthy startup routine and often prevent you from your tasks while they run massive upgrades.

Well done, Google!

I couldn't agree more with this article. 100% right!

The Chromebook is an okay livingroom computer, but it's lack of serious offline capabilities and locally stored applications (such as, say, OpenOffice) means it will never be anything more than a convenience.
Now with android tablets here, it seems too little, too late.
For now, I'll stick with my netbook running ubuntu.

CaniblCat, on 03 July 2011 - 01:57 PM, said:

I've lost count of the number of times people said "Too little, too late" and were proven wrong. Latest sales figures show Chromebook flying off the shelves and getting sold out on Amazon. I don't think that trend's going to abate by much even after the initial halo effect wears off. Chromebooks give us a glimpse into the future of cloud-computing and show us that notebooks are here to stay for the foreseeable future.

And tablets have proven to have limited uses for the time being. Unlike tablets, Chromebooks appear to have a higher level of potential for business and consumer use.

I kinda agree, you should really show this to a person addicted to Google.

zeth006, on 03 July 2011 - 03:00 PM, said:

the chromebook is nothing but a browser installed in a laptop... a friend of mine got the chromebook thinking it might be something like ubuntu or windows or even ipad or android... he got shocked that he cant use skype on it... his daughter wanted games and no games for it except those online flash ones!!! it can be kept in a living room just to browse and open attachments... maybe maybe play a video... but seriously, we have the transformer and an ipad and they are the perfect netbooks does exactly what chromebook does with extra multitasking and apps to make you much more productive... your chromebook which is "flying off the shelves" is not even 5% close to challenge the iPads or Android tablets in sales

Even though chromebooks seem like they wont have mass adoption, they most likely seem like they will have a market of their own....indicated by reasons 3 to 5!!

I find it funny that everyone is saying how the netbook is dead or dying! So what do they do, take a netbook, pull out the storage and put an OS in ROM and call it a Chromebook! What a joke, people, wise up to what it really is. Now you have a Chromebook that does almost nothing without the internet! Not for me!!!

2000 - Internet appliances introduced; bombed.

2006 - Internet appliances re-introduced, renamed netbooks; bombed.

2011 - Internet appliance re-introduced, renamed Chromebook.

Any reason to expect a different result this time?