Google is set to take their piece of the netbook market this summer and if a recent report from Neowin.net is correct they plan to do it in a completely different way to everyone else. Apparently they play to offer a payment system unseen since the days of renting electrical equipment. We already knew that the Google netbook range will be based in the cloud but no one expected them to offer them on a subscription basis.
The netbooks will be offered to Gmail subscribers, users will be able to pay on a monthly basis for the netbooks with packages ranging from $15-$20 (£9-£12) per month which will include new hardware upgrades when they become available. So for around £108 per year users will be able to own a Google netbook and have it upgraded when a new one comes out, sounds good but what we don’t know is if data is included in this price – we’d assume it will be because the devices run from a cloud based system and without 3G or Wi-Fi it would be pretty useless.
If that’s not to your liking and you’d prefer to buy it outright Google will allow that too, this hybrid payment system could prove to be very popular so long as the hardware and OS can pass the high quality standards that consumers are seeking.
The netbooks are expected to launch in the summer, a recent statement by Sundar Pichai revealed “we are still fixing some bugs and improving compatibility with devices such as digital cameras on Chrome OS.”
Are you interested in the new chrome OS or Google Netbooks?
