Chrome OS Netbooks Coming Soon: $10-$20 per month?

[Terminator02]

Neowin reported some exciting news yesterday which most of us have been waiting to hear for the last year. Not only are they claiming that Chrome OS devices (probably netbooks to start off with) will begin shipping this June/July , they are also suggesting that Google will sell them on a subscription service:

"According to our source, Google plans to make the notebooks available for $10-$20 a month per user, and will provide hardware refreshes as they are released as part of the package, and will replace faulty hardware for the life of the subscription."

It has also been claimed over the last few days that Google will be releasing Chrome OS during the I/O event which is slated for May 11-12th this year. This comes after Google unveiled the ‘stable channel’ for Chrome OS which has alwaysonly had a beta and dev channel in a move that suggests the soon launch of the operating system.

Interestingly enough the reported device launch seems to fit this timeline very well.


An Impending Netbook Boom?

Chrome OS seems to have the potential to reignite the netbook market which has since waned in the wake of the Ipad and Ipad 2. Indeed Chrome OS will redefine the netbook market and turn netbooks into what they were originally meant to be; light, cheap web consumption devices.

The possibility that Google may begin to offer these devices on subscription (or contract) would open up this market (at $10-$20 per month) to an even greater number of aspiring individuals. The netbook will begin to compete with devices like the Ipad from a more aggressive price point.

This does seem to be an interesting year for the computing industry; will it be the year of the Ipad 2 or of the Chrome OS Netbooks?[/p]

Source (ChromeOSsite)

 

[Fluto]

i just want the OS to dual-boot on my pc :S
or put it on my usb and use it at school XD

 

[Slyakin]

Wait; Are we forced to pay a starting fee and THEN a contract? (Like getting an iPhone: Pay 200 bucks, then start paying monthly)

That is just stupid. I want a netbook that won't end up costing me more then my desktop. The hardware refreshing, though, sounds really unique.

 

[Nujui]

I don't even like chrome. It always slowed down everything on my computer.

Then I went to Firefox 4. No complaints.

 

[Terminator02]

Wait; Are we forced to pay a starting fee and THEN a contract? (Like getting an iPhone: Pay 200 bucks, then start paying monthly)

That is just stupid. I want a netbook that won't end up costing me more then my desktop. The hardware refreshing, though, sounds really unique.

no, just the subscription, the hardware is included

 

[FireGrey]

This netbook better be extremely cheap or else the other netbooks will dominate it...

 

[aiRWaLKRe]

I never got picked to do the beta testing of the laptop/netbook with the OS :/ I'm not sure how I feel about this item. I don't use google anything im not a google sheeppl like most people. So I am not at all really interested in this, if I think about it. I wanted an android phone till I realized it was google funded by buying the developer.

I guess the reason I don't use google is because everyone says "just google it" I have my own mind and can choose to use what I want. I don't follow the crowd, I have my own semi-free mind to do what I want to. Like my mom use to say "if every said to jump off a cliff would you?"

 

[Snailface]

So this is a cloud based OS. Sounds good. Wait a minute, so everything that would normally be stored on the hard drive is now on the net? Are just system files stored on the cloud or is it general data as well? And do I have to pay a monthly fee to keep it all?

???

Am I wrong because I hope I am, lol.

 

[TheDarkSeed]

or put it on my usb and use it at school XD

Now that my friend is a good idea...

 

[notmeanymore]

I wish a service like this were available for other computers. I'd rather pay $60 a month to always have a midgrade computer that can meet the minimum requirements of the latest games, than $1000 every few years for a nice computer.

 

[Rydian]

This may not appeal to people like us, but to people who only browse web pages online, it's great.

 

[CherrySkitty]

I waaaaaant! ;_;
The hardware refreshing sounds good!

 

[Wizerzak]

I don't even like chrome. It always slowed down everything on my computer.

Then I went to Firefox 4. No complaints.

This is about the OS, not the browser.

Anyway, I thought the OS was going to be open-source? I hopes so cause I might put it on this ultra-slow laptop that I have (don't really use). It currently has Ubuntu on as windows xp was so slow but i'm hoping chrome can speed it up even more.

 

[Terminator02]

I don't even like chrome. It always slowed down everything on my computer.

Then I went to Firefox 4. No complaints.

This is about the OS, not the browser.

Anyway, I thought the OS was going to be open-source? I hopes so cause I might put it on this ultra-slow laptop that I have (don't really use). It currently has Ubuntu on as windows xp was so slow but i'm hoping chrome can speed it up even more.

the OS is just the browser with a little bit of added UI for basic computer functionality

and it is open source, and in fact they recently released the first stable build of Chrome OS IIRC

@Snailface i'm fairly certain it's in the cloud, you need a google account to sign in to Chrome OS, and there is no file browser, you're relying on various cloud services (and html5 apps) for all of your common computer stuff