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By Maggie Shiels Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley
Google graphic illustrating software on traditional laptops Google said
traditional laptops were weighed down by expensive software
Google co-founder Sergey Brin has hailed Google's new laptops as a "new model
of computing".
They will be driven via Google's Chrome browser and optimised for the web.
His comments came on the second day of the company's developer conference,
where Google announced that so-called Chromebooks will go on sale in June.
Samsung and Acer will be the first manufacturers to offer the devices, for
between $349 and $499, in the US and six European countries initially.
Google's aim is to encourage people to use web-based applications, claiming
that that is where most people spend their time and that most tasks can be
accomplished online.
The internet giant said because Chromebooks are not weighed down by software
and applications common to most laptops, they boot up in eight seconds instead
of minutes.
The company said battery life on the device will last a day, security updates
will be done automatically and they will be faster than traditional laptops.
"It's a much easier way to compute... and Chromebook is venturing into a new
model of computing that I don't think was possible even a few years ago," said
Mr Brin.
"Ultimately the most precious resource is the user's time. I think the
complexity of managing your computer is really torturing users out there. It is
a flawed model and I think Chromebooks are a new model and this is the way
things are going to be," added Mr Brin.
'Nothing but the web'
Six months ago a prototype of the Chromebook was introduced.
The CR-48 was given to developers, businesses, schools, journalists and
reviewers to play around with and test.
During the Google IO conference, Sundar Pichai, senior vice president for
Chrome, said that the pilot had over one million participants.
He told BBC News that the feedback from that programme helped underscore his
belief that users are more than ready for this new shift in computing.
"Most people spend all their time on the web, and for the first time we have
distilled the entire computing experience to be about nothing but the web," he
told BBC News.
Google graphic illustrating web-based software on its Chromebook Google said
its new web-based Chromebooks can save businesses money
"End-to-end, I think your computing experience will be far simpler, safer and
faster," added Mr Pichai.
"Today, most computers work where you have to interact with them and manage
them. We have switched that around and I am genuinely convinced almost everyone
is ready for it today."
There is some scepticism among those who follow the industry that ordinary
consumers will embrace the move away from the norm.
"I think it is the future of computing, but I am not quite convinced it is the
present of computing," said Steven Levy, senior writer at Wired Magazine and
the author of a newly-released book on Google called In The Plex.
"Having used one of these CR-48's, I found some problems like in a number of
cases not being able to get connectivity or get on fast enough. It wasn't as
good an experience as my regular environment.
"That said I do think it is a great nudge to push us into what is the logical
future of computing, but Google has to go out and sell this to convince
everybody of that view," added Mr Levy.
The first Chromebooks will be available for order in the US, the UK, France,
Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands from June 15.
The price for the Samsung version will start at $430 for a Wi-Fi powered device
and $499 for a 3G model. An Acer machine will start at $350.
Price, said Michael Gartenberg, a senior analyst with research firm Gartner,
could be a stumbling block.
"The hardware looks interesting, but the problem Google and its partners are
going to have is convincing someone to spend $499 on a device that looks like a
laptop but does so many fewer things.
"A $499 laptop can also run Chrome and get most of the Chrome apps. I think
people were looking for Google to not only come up with some sort of computing
innovation, but to come up with some pricing innovation as well. And at
$349-$499, it is going to be a hard sell for consumers," Mr Gartenberg told the
BBC.
Microsoft challenge
One area commentators think Google and its manufacturing partners might have
some success is with the business world and also in education.
Man speaking on mobile walks past Chrome advert Google said 160m users now use
its chrome browser
In a challenge to Microsoft, which rules the enterprise world with its Windows
and Office software, Google is offering its cloud-ready Chromebook to
businesses for $28 a person.
That will cover things like the cost of the device, necessary support, as well
as machine upgrades and replacements.
Mr Pichai told a roomful of around 5,000 developers that the Google initiative
would be one-third of what he estimated was the average $1,000 IT cost per
employee.
Google is also offering a similar package to schools for $20 per user.
"If they can make Chromebooks work for business and schools, it has the
potential to be a lot cheaper for them, because they don't have to manage them
and buy software, and they get replaced when they break," said Ina Fried,
senior editor with technology sites AllThingsDigital.
"It is a really appealing vision for these sectors, but I also think that
businesses and even students will find it hard to break away from the PC
entirely, a way of working that many people have gotten used to over the
years."
Google said that later in the year it expects a number of other manufacturers
to offer Chromebooks at a number of different price points.