Hats offff...

Google sells 1 million Chromebooks to schools in Q2 2014  

Google has revealed in a post on its official enterprise blog that US schools have purchased more than one million Chromebooks in the second quarter of 2014, positioning the brand as the third major platform for education providers, alongside Microsoft's Windows and Apple's OS X.

Nearly 10 years ago, the spiritual predecessor to the Chromebook, the One Laptop Per Child project, forced Intel and Microsoft to come up with the Netbook format which went on to marginalise Nicholas Negroponte's project (originally called $100 laptop).

Tablet turn

Netbooks became a major success for both Intel and Microsoft but the form factor died out when Apple launched the iPad and popularised the tablet format.

Google's Chromebook can be credited with forcing Microsoft to offer a cheaper version of Windows and radically change its licensing structure for manufacturers.

Devices with displays smaller than nine inches get Windows 8.1 for free, and those offering Windows with Bing and an assortment of Microsoft services get it at a discounted price.

This allowed manufacturers like Dell to offer Windows 8.1 laptops for under £200 and tablets for under £100.

Conclusion: Hats off to Google to bringing up this idea....