Chrome OS devices to be priced under $400

24th April, 2010 by adina
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Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO, has revealed that Chrome OS devices should be not expensive when going to sale. The statement was made during the Atmosphere Cloud Computing Forum. His estimation was that they would only cost between $300 and $400, the price being associated only with their hardware, since the Chrome operating system is free of charge. The most expensive component of the software is simply developing web applications, according to Schmidt.

There are some strict requirements for Chrome OS such as the need for a solid-state drive instead of having a rotating disk. However, the very low footprint of the platform allows small drives that would not provoke a cost penalty.

Google’s executive has also mentioned that Chrome OS is meant to be one of the first operating systems that could significantly change the current status of the market, where, during the last 20 years, there was no real danger for Windows and Mac OS.

Such low prices would be beneficial for Chrome OS, which is supposed to equip netbooks and tablets as well, thanks to its low requirements. It is relatively limited when compared to a platform such as the iPad because of its partial support for offline content. Significantly lower prices, however, would create an advantage for those using such a device exclusively for the web and similar tasks.


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Readers Comments

  1. Gnothi says:
    April 25, 2010 at 6:24 am

    That’s too much. ARM-Linux devices should sell for around $200 or less, otherwise mainstream consumers are unlikely to budge from familiar WinTel in any great numbers.