Posted on 05/16/2011 12:44:04 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) just explained the business case for Chromebooks in a press briefing at I/O, and it’s crystal clear that they’re not a consumer product.
Rather, Google is going after Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) heart — the corporate IT department.
The pitch: Chromebooks are so much cheaper and easier to manage than PCs, it will free up the IT department to do other more interesting (and profit-centered) things.
According to Gartner, the cost of managing each Windows PC in an organization is between $3,000 and $5,000 a year. That’s how much it takes for an IT person to do things like push Windows and Office patches out every month, install and maintain antivirus software, answer helpdesk calls, and so on.
Google isn’t claiming that Chromebooks will push these costs to zero, but Chrome OS business manager Rajen Sheth said that they could total cost of ownership in half.
The best example: today when a new employee starts, it can take several hours to image a new PC with all the right apps and get them set up on all the different accounts they need.
With a company that’s already set up to use Chromebooks, all a new user has to do is sign on and he’s up and running. All applications are delivered over the corporate network or the Web.
The IT manager from Jason’s Deli, a chain of 230 restaurants, said that they gave a bunch of sales managers Chromebooks as part of a pilot program. Last month, the company had 70 trouble tickets from regular laptops. It had zero from Chromebooks.
But what about Office? What about specialized corporate apps that only run on Windows?
Those are taken care of through a deal with virtualization company Citrix (NASDAQ:CTXS).
(Excerpt) Read more at wallstcheatsheet.com ...
google after Microsoft...?
Fight over Bing?
Chromebooks were originally intended as a consumer product and service. Now that Google realizes that, because of tablets and other cheap alternatives, the consumer ain’t buying, they’re having to redirect their efforts and marketing towards the business sector. Can’t let all that time and effort and money they wasted go to, well waste.
Chromebooks is an idea that belongs in the 1970s, and, if it had been released some 30 years ago, before Windows and Macs happened, it would’ve stood a chance.
I wonder how much of a “break” Logitech and Jason’s Deli got in order to be Chromebook’s first business customers?
In the absence of government intervention a monopoly will not last long.
Two things have prevented Apple from being a true competitor to MS; price and Apple’s unwillingness to sell OS to run on other machines.
Another nail in MS coffin.
Still, zero trouble tickets is a very inspiring number, ignoring any downside, of course.
“According to Gartner, the cost of managing each Windows PC in an organization is between $3,000 and $5,000 a year.”
Pure BS
3 to 5k should be the TCO for a PC for it’s lifetime.
Except for very rare cases, any IT department spending that per year should be fired.
>>E. Pluribus Unum wrote:
Back to server-client, where it all began.<<
I believe it’s been re-branded as cloud computing.
Yeah, I cant wait to buy a Chromebook and have to turn ALL OF MY PERSONAL DATA over to Google for storage on their servers. We can trust Google, right?
I dont care if they give the Chromebook away for free. I’d never buy a product that required me to store my data in the cloud, whether its Google, Apple, Microsoft, or whoever.
If you have 5000 or more employees running Office on there PC’s it might use up a lot of server time.
If they could get Lotus Notes off of my PC it would eliminate a lot of trouble tickets from me.
In this battle of the scorpions, though I rooting for MSFT.
Any reason this O/S won’t get hit with the same mountain of patent violatlon lawsuits its big brother Android already has? And since Google provides no indemnification, the legal liabilities are automatically passed down to the manufacturers, and eventually even the end users.
Interesting.
Besides your time, how does the cost break down? How much on average does each machine cost to acquire? How many years is it in service? What's the average amount of expense for stuff like replacing hard drives, bad monitors, etc.? How much for network services, applications software, and admin tools? How much goes to Microsoft or is caused by Microsoft but is otherwise avoidable?
Things are becoming rather complicated in this arena.
You are damn right on that. Putting a PC with individual storage, etc on each desktop was a quantum leap backwards for corporate IT.
What’s good for you at home isn’t good in a business environment.
HOWEVER.
I’d rather use a Chromebook like machine and store all of the info on MY servers.
It’s similar to the advantage that comes from using an OS with a tiny user base. The fewer the people using the OS, the fewer the problems reported, and the fewer hackers that will be tempted to “annoy” the system.
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