Ever because the first Chromebook Pixel hit cabinets in 2013, it’s had a particular place within the ChromeOS neighborhood’s hearts. It wasn’t only a product — it was a sneak peek at what the Chromebook market may turn into.
Sadly for these followers, the Pixelbook line isn’t any extra. A brand new Pixelbook (the religious successor to the unique Chromebook Pixel) was “far alongside in improvement and anticipated to debut subsequent 12 months,” my colleagues Alex Heath and David Pierce reported earlier this week. However the challenge has been reduce “as a part of current cost-cutting measures.”
“We’re dedicated to constructing and supporting a portfolio of Google merchandise which are modern and useful for our customers,” Google advised The Verge in a press release. It might appear that this portfolio doesn’t embrace Chromebooks anymore, a minimum of not within the brief time period.
A cynic would possibly see this announcement as the tip of the high-end Chromebook area (Google makes ChromeOS, in spite of everything). And it’s true that the patron marketplace for ChromeOS, generally, is getting smaller and that convertible laptops (which the Pixelbook was) are falling out of vogue.
I feel there’s one other view, although: the Pixelbook achieved its objective, and that objective is now not wanted. It’s a view that’s extra appropriate with the method Google has usually taken with the Pixel {hardware} line all through the years.
“We’re dedicated to constructing and supporting a portfolio of Google merchandise which are modern and useful for our customers.”
2013, the 12 months of the Chromebook Pixel, was a distinct world. That gadget wasn’t actually a tool. It was a imaginative and prescient. I imply, the factor had a beginning value of $1,299. Even immediately’s HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook, criticized extensively for its excessive value regardless of being mainly flawless {hardware}, begins $150 decrease than that (and that’s with inflation and every part else). 2013 ChromeOS — I feel even essentially the most diehard followers can agree — was not in anyplace near the place it’s now.
It appears clear that Google didn’t intend to make a tool that individuals would possibly, let’s assume, buy. The objective was to indicate producers what may very well be executed.
The 2017 Pixelbook was the identical type of deal. Its chassis was distinctive — not simply amongst Chromebooks however amongst laptops generally. It was underneath half an inch thick, and it was fanless earlier than fanless was a pattern. I nonetheless keep in mind the day the evaluate unit arrived within the workplace I used to be working in on the time. I keep in mind it being handed across the desks, each worker wanting an opportunity to see it for themselves. We’d mainly solely seen ChromeOS on ugly clunkers as much as that time — that it may energy such a groundbreaking chassis was a novel thought to a lot of the general public. No person deliberate on buying it, however everybody wished a glance.
The objective was to indicate different producers what may very well be executed
Was the Pixelbook a bestseller? I can’t think about — and, in fact, Google hasn’t made one other one. The Pixelbook Go was nice, but it surely occupied a distinct product class (and barely lower cost level) than its predecessor. It additionally didn’t come near the lust-worthy and envelope-pushing design the 2017 mannequin pioneered.
However I do suppose the Pixelbook led to a sure mindset shift amongst many in tech media. It didn’t simply illustrate that ChromeOS may exist and thrive in a flowery chassis. It planted the thought of their heads that there may very well be a world — not in 2017, however perhaps within the not-so-distant future — the place paying $1,000 for a ChromeOS gadget wasn’t completely loopy. As Mashable wrote in its glowing evaluate, “The vast majority of Chromebooks are and doubtless will at all times be under-powered rubbish. However that doesn’t imply each Chromebook must be.”
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We’ve advised this story about Pixel-branded merchandise earlier than. Look to the Pixel cellphone. It’s hardly poised to turn into a serious participant in a market that Apple and Samsung very solidly dominate, however Google retains placing them out to showcase its working system by itself phrases. The upcoming Pixel Watch, sizzling off of Google’s acquisition of Fitbit, can also be poised to enter a market the place Android units haven’t been at their finest, the place an instance could also be sorely wanted.
2022 just isn’t 2013. There at the moment are ChromeOS choices within the HP Dragonfly and Lenovo ThinkPad traces — two of essentially the most established premium laptop computer households in historical past from two plain leaders in constructing high-quality {hardware}. Asus has been doing all types of funky issues with the working system, together with the premium Chromebook CX5 (which is just about indistinguishable from a high-end Home windows laptop computer) and the Chromebook Removable CM3 with a dual-folding kickstand.
The ChromeOS area now not wants Google to guide by instance. Different corporations at the moment are placing the working system in chassis that rival these of the perfect Home windows-powered units. Whether or not shoppers will purchase them now’s one other story.