Google unveiled a touchscreen notebook computer on Thursday
designed for high-end users, throwing down the gauntlet to Apple and its
MacBooks.
Google said its Chromebook Pixel computers blending tablet
and laptop technology, boasting heavyweight Intel chips and screens .tailored
for rich graphics, were released in the United States and Britain, starting at
$1,299."People will give up a MacBook Air for this," Google Chrome
senior vice president Sundar Pichai said.
A Pixel model
featuring built-in connectivity to the Verizon mobile Internet service will hit
the US market in April at a price of $1,449.The newly unveiled version can
connect online with wireless hot-spot technology or cables.Google launches even
cheaper Chromebook"It's a great looking product," Om Malik of
technology news website GigaOM said at the Pixel debut in San Francisco.
"But Google is facing a selling problem, they have to
compete on price originally and build a developer base for a high-end
product."A man uses the Google Chromebook Pixel laptop computer after an
announcement in San Francisco, Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013. Google is adding a new
touch to its line of Chrome laptops in an attempt to outshine personal
computers running on software made by rivals Microsoft and Apple. Google is
hoping enthusiasts will forego price comparisons with competitors such as
MacBooks or laptops built on Windows 8 software and focus instead on the
Pixel's touchscreen feature and the massive terabyte of Google Drive online
data storage included.
"It seems like a pretty hard sell," said Forrester
analyst James McQuivey. "I hope they are not planning to make a lot of
money off it."
While the Pixel seems aimed at the MacBook market, it also
faces fierce competition from touchscreen laptops based on Windows 8 software."It
seems like more of a symbolic product release with Google trying to make a
point that it is no longer just a low-end provider of devices," McQuivey
said.
Sundar Pichai, Google's senior vice president of Chrome and
apps, discusses the Google Chromebook Pixel laptop computer at an announcement
in San Francisco, Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013. Photo: AP/Jeff Chiu.Analyst Rob
Enderle of Enderle Group branded the Pixel move "a train wreck,"
arguing that notebook computers above $600 have historically not sold well and
that Apple even sells a slick MacBook Air model for $999.Apple cuts MacBook
prices by up to $200
The booming
popularity of tablet computers is also eroding the overall market for laptops."It
just boggles the mind," Enderle said. "I have no clue what the hell
Google was thinking."
The announcement adds
a new dimension to the rivalry between the two tech giants, locked in a fierce
battle over smartphones and tablets."This is for power users we expect to
live completely in the cloud," Pichai said. "The Pixel is about
pushing the state of the art."Google custom built Pixel and is producing
it with the help of electronics manufacturers in Taiwan.
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