Google Unveils 'Chromebooks'

The first laptops running Google’s Chrome OS will hit in June, the company announced yesterday, in an announcement it’s spent two years building up to. The first models will be manufactured by Acer and Samsung and priced $349 to $499, the Wall Street Journal reports. Google won’t make any money off those, but it will get a cut on the laptop subscription plans it will offer to students and corporate users; these cost $20 a month and $28 a month, respectively, come with a three-year term, and include customer support from Google.

The laptops will run an operating system based around web-based applications and cloud computing. And because they'll have limited functionality when not online, they'll come with 100MB of mobile broadband from Verizon each month; users will have to pay if they want a more expansive data plan. Other perks: They have a six- to eight-hour battery life and boot up in eight seconds. “The complexity of managing your computers is really torturing users out there,” said Sergey Brin. “Chromebooks are a new model that doesn't put the burden of managing your computer on yourself.." (More Google stories.)