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The only things that can stop the Chromebook are you and Google
OPINION It's not the product, it's the perception

By Chris Phin  November 30th 2014

The only things that can stop the Chromebook are you and Google
The Chromebook are still waiting for the world to notice them
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For a long time, Chromebooks seemed like they would fizzle, and for just the reasons you might expect. People called them under-powered, said they didn't run the software they depended on, and that there was just no compelling reason to buy one over a cheap Windows or Linux laptop. For a while, we got one Chromebook at a time, made by different manufacturers - not unlike how Google's Nexus brand is applied to smartphones and tablets made by a succession of manufacturers.
But little by little, the Chromebook has gained momentum and diversified, and now ABI Research forecasts that a little over four million Chromebooks will be sold this year (compared to 300m conventional laptops). Four against 300 doesn't sound like much, but this would probably be a doubling of Chromebook sales over the previous year - while conventional laptop sales are predicted to fall from 316m according to ABI.
For the most part, Chromebooks seem to be being bought by the education market, and they're doing great things there. When even one of the smartest and strongest advocates for the iPad in education, Fraser Speirs, records an episode of his podcast called The Case for Chromebooks, you should be thinking at least that there's potential here.
The question still gets asked, though: what will it take for the Chromebook to go mainstream? It's a question that assumes Google has to change the Chromebook to make it attractive to the mass market, and I think that's the wrong perspective. I think the market has to change.
It's not them, it's you

A Chromebook is already a good option for the mass market. For home users, it's simple, reliable, robust and likely not as susceptible to viruses as a Windows machine. If most of us actually stop to think about it, the majority of what we use a computer for these days can already be done in a browser window. That's in part because of how much time we spend on websites (such as Facebook and Twitter), and in part because web versions of apps such as Word are finally rich and responsive enough to be usable.
What's more, many of those jobs that we currently don't do in a browser could be done in a browser with minimal disruption if we wanted to. Besides, some interesting things are happening such as the streaming version of Photoshop which brings the full, complete power of Photoshop to a Chromebook while doing all the heavy lifting on a server somewhere. It's trickier in some businesses, but for others - especially sole traders and SMBs who might be well served by or even already be using Google Apps for Work - a Chromebook could be not just a usable trade-off but actually the best tool for the job.
Still, you might say, why should I buy a Chromebook to do these things when I can just install Chrome on my PC or Mac and not have the same compromises? Well, it's true you won't have the same compromises, but you will have compromises. The system is more complex and so liable to failure, it's a bigger target for malware. And of course there's price: for the most part, Chromebooks just are cheap."

EXPERTS NOT BUYING IT

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His answer, broadcast on Wednesday, to the question from George Stephanopoulos of ABC News, was unequivocal: “No.”

But even as a grand jury decided this week not to indict Officer Wilson, the shooting of the 18-year-old, Michael Brown, has continued to raise questions about whether the officer handled the brief and deadly confrontation correctly. It also has become part of a broader national debate over police tactics and potential racial bias in policing."

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Google's Nexus 6 and Nexus 9 Could Be Too Expensive (AAPL, GOOG, GOOGL,
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"Although previous Nexus devices didn't set sales records, they were fairly well-received -- the Nexus 7, in particular, fueled Asus' emergence as a top tablet vendor. Budget-minded consumers may have been attracted to the high-end hardware offered at an affordable price.
But it's hard to see these latest Nexuses as much of a bargain. Though both the Nexus 6 and Nexus 9 are bigger and more powerful than their predecessors, they're also much more expensive.
Nexus has been synonymous with value
The last three Nexus devices -- the Nexus 4, Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 -- were defined as much by their low price tags as they were by their hardware. The Nexus 4, for example, retailed for just $299 despite offering what was, at the time, one of the fastest available mobile processors. In fact, in terms of hardware, the Nexus 4 was almost identical to Samsung's (NASDAQOTH: SSNLF  ) competing Galaxy S3, but it cost half as much."

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Not everything is right out of the gate. If anything Material Design is overly white and spread out (you can see less information in most apps – eg fewer emails, lines of text, etc) whereas its predecessor Android 4.4 KitKat was too dark and dense."

Google Nexus 9 review

" In Android's early days, the Nexus line served most notably as a comfortable, reliable tentpole. Really, the word "Nexus" was just about the only calm oasis during the operating system's Wild West period of varied hardware. New smartphones and tablets under Google's official banner usually came with the next big Android OS update, and they offered the kinds of stable hardware qualities (resolution, RAM, etc.) that developers could more easily target.

SPECS AT A GLANCE: HTC NEXUS 9
SCREEN 2048×1536 8.9" (281 PPI) IPS LCD
OS Android 5.0 Lollipop
CPU Tegra K1 dual-core 2.3GHz Denver
RAM 2GB
GPU Nvidia Kepler DX1
STORAGE 16GB or 32GB (non-upgradeable)
NETWORKING 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, DLNA, Bluetooth 4.1, A2DP, NFC, optional LTE
PORTS Micro-USB, headphone
CAMERA 8MP rear camera, 1.2MP front camera
SIZE 8.98" × 6.05" × 0.31" (228 x 154 x 7.9 mm)
WEIGHT 15 oz. (425 g)
BATTERY 6700 mAh (non-removable)
STARTING PRICE $399

That's not the case in 2014. Across the phone-and-tablet spectrum, the hardware has become more homogenized, and even low-end hardware is good enough for typical mobile tasks. And while Android's next major update, Lollipop, offers some substantial visual changes and user requested features (look for the Ars Lollipop review coming separately), the OS is also about to roll out to other capable flagship devices, as if to say that eager upgraders don't need the newest model to dive in. What does the Nexus branding mean for a new device in 2014, then?

In the case of the brand's tablet half, the name seems to mostly signify power. Up until now, Nexus tablets—most notably, the Nexus 7's two iterations—have made waves with a combination of high quality parts and ridiculously low prices, undercutting a slew of other cheap, ho-hum tablets without skimping on performance. This year's Nexus 9, conversely, set its price point just a hair beneath Apple's similar iPad Air 2 while promoting its own industry-topping specs. This is not a tablet meant to blow the competition away with crazy new features or gimmicks; instead, it's a solid, familiar-looking Nexus device that just happens to have a ton of juice.

But just as we asked with the iPad Air 2, what does power really do for users when it's strapped to a mobile-first operating system? Are 8.9 inches of Android any better equipped to scream with 2GB of RAM, a 2.3GHz dual-core processor, and a 192-core Kepler GPU? And does the rest of the package—design, screen, camera—do much to either cement the love of the Android faithful or turn the heads of the iOS weary?"