However, a Windows 10 two-in-one or even low-cost PC still can run Photoshop, full Office, any web browser you want, iTunes, or any application your company wants you to use. Modern mobile computing is going towards the app model, which even Microsoft is mimicking with its Universal Windows Platform (UWP). (However, virtualization may be the solution for both platforms.)įor some people, this won't be a problem. Just like how Microsoft's Continuum looks like full Windows 10, but it cannot run "classic" Win32 applications either. Ironically, Google has the same problem that Microsoft has with Continuum, but from the other end.įor example, the beautiful new $600 HP Chromebook 13 looks like a full PC, feels like a full PC, but it's not a real PC.
While all of this Android and Chrome OS stuff is impressive, there are still some perception issues that Google faces. More tools for developers will be arriving with Android N this summer.Ĭonsidering there are 1.5 million Android apps now available including a vast array of popular games like Clash of Clans and Google has pulled off a novel trick without any severe shakeup for developers. Those apps run through containers and offer split-view and floating window app sizes instead of any awkward stretching.
The main takeaway is that developers will not have to do much to get their apps onto Chrome OS. Ars Technica does a very good job of explaining how Google achieved this feat and it's worth a read. It will all be done through the addition of the Google Play Store to those devices, although schools can opt-out by not letting that happen keeping that market safe for now. Google announced that later in 2016 people will be able to run full Android apps on their Chromebooks (specifically, these).
And let's face it, Microsoft has lost the youth market for smartphones, which is the one area in computing that is doing well these days. More often than not your first computer was a Windows device, but now that is changing with declining PC sales and the slow rise of Chromebooks. By reaching so many children early on with Chrome OS and hooking them on Google's services, or at least familiarizing them with the tech, Google is slowly cornering a new generation of converts.Ī lot of people use Windows today because it is what they always used. The longer term story is more dangerous for Microsoft. That's the first time such a feat has happened and ignoring Chrome OS is no longer feasible.Ĭhromebooks outsold Macs last quarter for the first time A firm number would be close to 2 million units sold. To put all of this in perspective, more Chromebooks were sold in the first quarter of 2016 than all of Apple's OS X, at least according to IDC. In the US, where school districts are already under tremendous pressure from an electorate uninterested in infrastructure, Chrome OS is hard to shrug off.
Sure, Windows can do – way more – but Chromebooks offers school districts a cheap and efficient way to meet basic computing needs on a budget.
The reason for the rise is precisely because the OS cannot install apps and IT departments can lockdown and secure Chromebooks with ease, especially compared to Windows. More importantly, the biggest area in which Google is having success with Chrome OS is with schools. Tech enthusiasts and consumers have mostly ignored Google's Chrome OS, but that is slowly changing.