14 DAY TRIAL // Chromebooks haven't taken the world by storm. Perhaps they never will, but they do have their advantages in several areas in particular, businesses and schools being prime targets. It's no surprise then perhaps that Google was able to convince several schools to get as many as 27,000 Chromebooks for their students.
"Many schools are eager to improve access to the web and technology for students and are planning to provide each student with their own device – a concept known as '1-to-1' computing," Google wrote.
"We've heard from our customers that they choose Chromebooks for 1-to-1 because the simplicity of the web takes away the hassle for teachers, students and administrators," it added.
The fact that there is little maintenance involved with a Chromebook and that students can keep all of their work and all of their files regardless of the device they're using are just a couple of the big advantages.
"Hundreds of schools in 41 states across the U.S. are using one or more classroom sets of Chromebooks today. As a highlight, three new school districts in Iowa, Illinois and South Carolina are going 1-to-1 – that is, one Chromebook each for nearly 27,000 students," Google boasted.
These are not the only schools that have chosen Chromebooks, but they're probably the most committed. The Richland School District Two in South Carolina alone will buy Chromebooks for all of its 19,000 students.
All of these kids are going to use a Chromebook at school and this may translate into them buying one at home, or at the very least, using more Google tools, such as Docs, Gmail and so on, with their school work and elsewhere.
Again, Chromebooks may never become a mass market device, in the way tablets have done, but there is clearly a place and a market for them, a rather large one at that.