It appears just like the Google Pixelbook isn’t any extra, with stories that not solely has Google cancelled its upcoming Chromebook, nevertheless it’s additionally disbanded the workforce who had been engaged on it.
This information, as reported by The Verge (opens in new tab), is an actual blow. The earlier mannequin, the Pixelbook Go, wasn’t simply top-of-the-line Chromebooks ever made, it was top-of-the-line laptops as properly.
It additionally comes as a little bit of a shock, as there have been hints that Google was engaged on a brand new Pixelbook as lately as at this yr’s Google I/O. A Google spokesperson additionally hinted to us final yr {that a} new Pixelbook was coming.
Sadly, it appears that evidently the plans have now modified, doubtless partially to Google’s choice to chop prices by cancelling or pausing sure initiatives. Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, wrote in a memo (and seen by The Verge (opens in new tab)), that these measures “means pausing growth and re-deploying sources to increased precedence areas.” It looks like the workforce engaged on future Pixelbooks have been redeployed elsewhere in Google.
Evaluation: Farewell, Pixelbook
The Pixelbook sequence solely had two entries – the unique, high-end Pixelbook, alongside the extra inexpensive Pixelbook Go – nevertheless it actually made a mark.
The unique Pixelbook was imagined to showcase the potential of Chromebooks. Fairly than simply being low-cost units for shopping the net and firing off a couple of emails, the Pixelbook got here with a powerful 2,400 x 1,600 display screen, 256GB SSD, 8GB RAM and an Intel Core i5 processor – the type of specs that wouldn’t have seemed misplaced in a high-end laptop computer.
Its goal was to problem individuals’s preconceptions of what a Chromebook is, whereas additionally appearing as inspiration for different Chromebook makers (Google is, in fact, additionally behind the Chrome OS working system that each one Chromebooks run, so has a vested curiosity within the success of all Chromebooks, not simply its personal). That was a tricky – just about inconceivable – process, and so it will not be a lot shock to study that it didn’t succeed.
The principle downside was the excessive value – launching at $999/£999 (round AU$1,500) and going as much as $1,649 / £1,699 (round AU$2,400), the shortage of gross sales confirmed the world was simply not prepared for an costly Chromebook.
The follow-up, the Pixelbook Go, was extra inexpensive, however beginning at $849 / £829 (about AU$1,250), it was nonetheless far dearer than most Chromebooks, regardless of providing glorious efficiency and battery life, plus top-of-the-line keyboards we’ve even used on a laptop computer.
Once more, the Pixelbook Go remained a distinct segment product, regardless of glowing evaluations (together with from us).
With Google now apparently ending Pixelbook growth, it looks like there’s no urge for food for premium Chromebooks with value tags to match. Comprehensible, however we will’t assist feeling unhappy that this might imply Chromebooks are doomed to at all times be seen as finances units, after they might have been a lot extra.
