Something caught my eye this morning as I was scanning my RSS feeds. Google has launched their Chromebook product announcement page. Check it out. It’s pretty interesting.
The skinny: Google has partnered with Acer, Samsung, and Verizon Wireless to bring us a lightweight (both in form factor and in processing power) mobile computer which is supposed to fill the gaping void that was not created when the iPad replaced the netbook. It’s basically an interface for the Google Chrome browser and its add-ons.
Google Chromebook is “Always connected.” Yeah, whatever. I don’t buy it, and apparently neither does Google.
Obviously, I’m not a fan of this idea; I don’t trust the cloud enough to move my data into it, and I’m completely disinterested in working dependently on an “always-on” internet connection that I don’t believe is ready to support this sort of technology. I’ll get into my feelings on this platform as it approaches its June 15th launch, I’m sure, but that’s not what I’m here to talk to you about today.
While I was perusing the Chromebook Features page, I noticed a wildly defensive disclaimer at the bottom. It reads thus:
* Obviously, you’re going to need a wireless network, be willing to use it subject to the provider’s terms and conditions, and be ready to put up with its real life limitations including, for example, its speed and availability. When you do not have network access, functionality that depends on it will not be available.
Wow. Now that’s an interesting tack for a company like Google to take.
From a customer service standpoint, this approach portends a media catfight over who’s fault it is when this thing fails. (And it will.)
Are the geniuses at Google attempting to ward off the Apple/AT&T “Antennagate” juju before it even gets started?
Who approved the language in this disclaimer anyway? It reads as written by a frustrated Genius Bar staffer. Is this the tone and quality commitment we can expect from Google as Chromebook launches?
Hmmm…
Perhaps Google still needs adult supervision after all.
What do you think? Are you “ready to put up with” Chromebook’s “real life limitations?”
Comments section below. Light it up.
Thanks
~ Chris
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m probably not what you’d call a “heavy user” (I’m not a designer/don’t edit many images), but as a ChromeOS user for the last 5 or so months, this has become my primary machine. The major issue has been lack of offline access to files, but with recent announcements of offline access and the addition of a media player, I don’t foresee using much else anymore. As long as Google can keep their uptime to their current standard (the recent Blogger outage notwithstanding), the ubiquity of wifi and 3G access have made my Cr-48 the perfect machine for me.
Hi Corey.
Great comment, and good point. Though as a business user, there’s no way that I’m prepared to rely on the cloud for my livelihood. Not in the current state of the cloud, anyway.
First, you’ve got notoriously spotty 3G connectivity across the continent (they even allude quite blatantly to it’s ineffectiveness and unreliability in their disclaimer!) and then you’ve also got the issue of internet connections which often go out. We lose our connection at least once a week, always for mysterious reasons, for an hour or two at a time. Losing my internet for an hour or two doesn’t knock me out of the game, but it’s a huge annoyance, and speaks to the overall spottiness of the grid.
Next up are security issues. Sure, I use Google Docs, and I use (for now..) Dropbox, Evernote, Carbonite, etc etc as business tools, but I can’t imagine a situation where all of my data is in the cloud, and an internet outage (or a personal dispute over a telecom bill) leaves me without the ability to work!
I am a “heavy user.” But more importantly, I am a business user. My ability to earn an income is 100% dependent on content creation, content hosting, content distribution, and consulting services about those things. My computing (and the computing of my entire organization) is done locally. I can’t imagine moving to a cloud model now. The cloud is just.. not… ready for business.
You crazy man. Businesses have been in the cloud for years. Your business may be unique, but don’t speak for all businesses.
Actually I think Google’s disclaimer is spot on. They’re just stating the obvious. Which many ISP’s put in place bandwidth caps as well as speed caps. All they’re stating is that the performance of the netbook as well as fees and usage will depend largely on your ISP. Translation…”Your milage and fees may vary.”
I used a beta Chrome Netbook through my work for three weeks and it was perfectly fine. As most of these Google Android phones have wifi access spots, we’re now seeing 4G mifi devices, and the net is becoming something everyday and everywhere…it makes sense to connect to the cloud more.
My entire photography database is now in the cloud with smugmug. I access it, sync, and share for portfolio easily. Bookmarks, extensions, and even viewed websites sync across multiple computers using google sync.
Now this isn’t a production machine but for what it’s used for…it does it very well.
I think that there’s a huge problem with the concept of “stating the obvious.” The first question it brings up is “to whom is this (or SHOULD this be) obvious.” The next question is “How honest are we going to be in our sales copy that we’d have to refute ourselves in the disclaimer?”
If I were Verizon, I’d be LIVID at this disclaimer. On that same features page, Google says about 3G: It’s easy to get connected anytime and anywhere with built-in Wi-Fi and 3G
Further, on their Connectivity page, they assert:
When you’re on the road, you can stay connected with a 3G connectivity package from Verizon Wireless.
And then, after much hyperbole about being easy and fast to connect, and all of that, they state the “obvious” in the disclaimer, which is to say that 3G, and the carriers who provide it are unreliable, has real world speed and availability limitations. Well that’s not quite the “always connected” talking point they advertise.
I have no problem whatsoever with a company coming out and saying “look, this is a cloud computing device. It’s OS is web-based. There are no local processes, it’s all served via the web. This device works great where there’s a decent connection. If you don’t have a good connection where you are, it’s not going to work as advertised.”
Lastly, I’ve got no issues with the product. At all. And I’m not going to use it. I can’t; the cloud can’t support my business model. Not yet. Probably not for another few years, anyway, and then another couple of years before I’ll trust my living to it.
My astonishment comes from the way they’re presenting their “it’s not our fault” case in a disclaimer before the product even launches. It doesn’t speak well of their customer service strategy, or their partnership with Verizon Wireless.
You make a lot of valid points. But would you take a Windows machine with a
solid browser over a Chrome Book?
Hi Chris.
This is one of those unanswerable questions.
Yes. I would.
I HATE Windows, as you well know. For casual web-browsing and cloud-sifting, I’ve got my iPad, which is a hell of a lot more compelling to me then this product is.
And for business, I simply need local file storage, and local processing. I’m sure that sometime in the near future, I’ll have a full-on cloud-powered Photohop, but until then, I can’t work in the cloud.
Additionally, when we’ve got full-on broadband speeds coming from 3G, and it never goes down, then we can talk. Here’s another issue though; sometimes my cable goes out. Pole goes down, there’s a router that blows, whatever.. During the outage, I can still work. I can’t upload or download files, I can’t do research, but I can code a site. I can’t trust my living to the cloud. Not yet.
I’d take a shitty Windows machine over this, but I can see it blowing up for the casual user. I’m thinking AOL.com for the next generation. For business? No.
I would surely like to try it out, but… no, I can’t buy the idea either. And although I use Dropbox, Evernote, Google Docs, Remember The Milk etc., I’m careful enough to still keep my data in my hard drive, my pen drive and whatever.
Now that disclaimer is something HUGE, and we can only wait and see… ; )