$249 Google Laptop vs. $499+ Windows 8: Fight!
There are seven billion people in the world. There may be fewer than seven million people in the world requiring some esoteric specialty app that Google doesn't match. Fine. Seven billion vs. seven million?
Okay, then -- If you are one of the seven million, don't get a Google PC -- but if you are one of the other 99.9% of the world's population, the Google PC is likely for you -- and not just for being less than half the price.
As Steve Jobs said, PCs are trucks and iPads are cars. Except that you could also say that a Windows PC is a truck and a Google PC is a car -- much easier to operate, at a fraction of the cost.
Verdict: Inconclusive, but basically more people than you think should consider the Google OS. Its Chrome OS is suited for the mainstream -- not the other way around.
Windows 8 RT could out-sell the new $249 Google laptop, even though its starting price is twice as high, with the potential to go much higher. At least initially. But... that will more likely be a reflection of very poor consumer awareness of Google's new computers. Almost nobody among the "general consumers" today know they even exist, let alone that you can now buy what is in many ways a superior computer for only $249. If Google and Samsung prove they are as good at marketing as they have now shown to be in delivering a superior PC at a dramatically lower price, they could strangle Windows 8 in the cradle and achieve almost overnight world domination. But that's a bet on the Google marketing department I'm not willing to make -- not right now anyway. Pro tip: The Google laptop + the $199 Google Nexus 7 tablet are $51 less combined than the starting (no keyboard) price of the Microsoft Surface tablet. Game over. At the time of publication the author had positions in GOOG, MSFT, AAPL, QCOM, NVDA and AMD. Follow @antonwahlman This article was written by an independent contributor, separate from TheStreet's regular news coverage.Select the service that is right for you!
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