Chromebooks Can be Bought Like any Other Laptop Now

Chromebooks have been shipping to enterprises and schools for about four months, but the payment method didn't exactly impress everyone, so Google decided to start selling them more similarly to regular laptops as well.

Chromebooks, according to Google, have generated enough feedback for the company to start making changes and additions to the means it has for promoting them.

In other words, they actually have been selling during the four months since their initial launch, although it isn't clear now well.

Either way, there is always room for better, so Google decided to make it possible to buy the thing 'in full,' so to speak.

To offer some context, people didn't, so far, actually get to buy the Chromebooks in the strictest sense.

Since they have little to no storage space of their own, the laptops store everything in the cloud, so Google figured it may as well combine the product price with the service payment. The result was that schools and enterprises paid a three-year monthly fee.

This didn't exactly sit perfectly with those who operated on a yearly budget cycle, among others.

Thus, Google announced that the Chromebook can be bought in full, with or without support for 3G, at a price dependent on whether the customer is from the educational or enterprise sector.

Schools can get a Chromebook for $449 (323.90 Euro), or $519 (374.40 Euro) when 3G is factored in.

Meanwhile, businesses will have to pay $559 (403.26 Euro) and $639 (460.97 Euro), respectively.

All such Chromebooks come with a year of support included in the offer and buyers will have the option, after the year is out, to pay for a monthly support contract.

The fee is of $5 (3.6 Euro) for education customers and $13 (9.37 Euro) for enterprise customers.

“We have also added a few new features to the web-based management panel to help customers better deploy, monitor and customize their Chromebooks, including group policy management, shipment tracking and asset management,” said Glenn Wilson, product manager, Chrome for Business & Education.