14 DAY TRIAL // Google has been working on Chrome OS for years, though the first public release is just one and a half years old. The OS got another major update last spring, but for the longest time it seemed destined to be a niche product with a niche market.
The project kept going, but it didn't seem like Google was all that interested in it, especially with Android being the behemoth that it is.
But that all changed a few months ago when the new Samsung Chromebook was introduced.
Its killer feature was its price, almost half the price of other Chromebooks, at $249, €185 it was one of the cheapest laptops you could buy, by far.
Not long after that came an even cheaper Chromebook, built by Acer. Still, a couple of new devices didn't seem like that much to get excited about, even considering the price.
Yet, it seems that the price was key, as the cheap Chromebooks began to sell like hotcakes.
The Samsung one has been a top seller on Amazon and elsewhere online. It has stayed in the top spot ever since, ahead of a bunch of Apple laptops, quite a feat for such a niche device.
There don't seem to be that many returns and the Chromebook has a four-star rating, so people are obviously satisfied with their purchases.
At the same time, reports say that Acer's cheap Chromebook now makes up some 5 to 10 percent of the company's US sales.
Even more recently, we've seen two more companies start making Chromebooks, Lenovo and HP, though HP is yet to confirm this officially.
Companies don't start building new devices unless they have some assurance that they're going to be able to sell them and sell enough for it to be worth it.
While everyone is touting the tablet as the PC killer and netbooks have almost been forgotten, it seems that there's still a market for a small, cheap laptop for the web.
