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Two years after launching it in the US, search giant Google is finally bringing its Chromebook to India. Chromebook will be available in India from October 17.
Personal computer (PC) manufacturers Hewlett-Packard and Acer are the vendors supplying Chromebook here. Acer will offer its C720 Chromebook for Rs 22,999, while HP’s Chromebook 14 will be priced at Rs 26,990.
Chromebook will be available in select Reliance Digital and Croma stores in Delhi and Mumbai from October 17. One can also pre-order at Flipkart.
Chromebooks are different from regular laptops. The hardware does not have a built-in storage component. It saves everything on the cloud, and stays up-to-date. According to Google, there’s no need to worry about security updates, anti-virus protection or malware.
Chromebook will have all the Google apps and features built-in. This includes applications such as Gmail, YouTube and Google+. Users can also download apps from Chrome Web store. There are also tens of thousands of other free apps which you can download easily from the Chrome Web store.
The Acer C720 Chromebook and the HP Chromebook 14 come with 100 GB of free Google Drive storage (available for two years).
Users who prefer using the internet extensively will find Chromebook much more handy. Google has also included some offline features into the hardware such as Google Docs and offline Gmail. Google has tied up with Tikona and Airtel to bundle connectivity offers.
Globally, the biggest draw for the Chromebook is its price. The impact of this low-cost device was evident on the sales. In the US, where PC shipments have been falling, 175,000 units of Chromebook were sold for the quarter of June-September 2013.
India angle
Analysts are not yet sure how Chromebook will be perceived in India. For Google, the Indian launch means capturing the next-generation users who heavily use Google applications as well as the internet. Plus, India has one of the fastest growing smartphone segments. Which means, smartphone users, though small in number, are consuming data big time.
At Rs 23,000 or Rs 27,000 (depending on the brand one chooses), a user can get a full-blown laptop. Google has also worked on the Chromebook since it was launched and now also includes features that can be used offline.
“As access to the web in India increases, more people are living online. Whether you’re watching IPL on YouTube from your home computer, or connecting with friends via social media on-the-go, the Internet is now part of everyday life. Chromebook from Google has been designed to help you get things done faster and easier,” Caesar Sengupta, vice-president (product management) at Google, wrote on his blog.
Sumanta Mukherjee, lead analyst at CMR InfoTech, said the Chromebook fits well into Google PLAY from a strategy perspective. Like all major players such as Apple and Microsoft, Google, too, wants more people to use its application platform. “The more the users using the platform, the greater the possibility of monetisation,” he adds.
However, Mukherjee has some concerns despite the affordability tag. “You have to always be online. In India, connectivity is still an issue.”
Kiran Kumar of IDC believes that although with Chromebook has not made any dent in the PC market, it has managed to emerge as a value category. “In India, too, I think they will be able to find a niche category. Especially with the uptick in the smartphone and tablet sales, there will be a segment of users who will like to adopt this device.”
