We didn’t want one other Pixelbook

Ever for the reason that first Chromebook Pixel hit cabinets in 2013, it’s had a particular place within the ChromeOS group’s hearts. It wasn’t only a product — it was a sneak peek at what the Chromebook market might change into.

Unfortunately for these followers, the Pixelbook line is not any extra. A brand new Pixelbook (the religious successor to the unique Chromebook Pixel) was “far along in development and expected to debut next year,” my colleagues Alex Heath and David Pierce reported earlier this week. But the mission has been minimize “as part of recent cost-cutting measures.”

“We are committed to building and supporting a portfolio of Google products that are innovative and helpful for our users,” Google informed The Verge in a press release. It would appear that this portfolio doesn’t embrace Chromebooks anymore, at the least not within the quick time period.

A cynic would possibly see this announcement as the top of the high-end Chromebook house (Google makes ChromeOS, in spite of everything). And it’s true that the patron marketplace for ChromeOS, generally, is getting smaller and that convertible laptops (which the Pixelbook was) are falling out of style.

I believe there’s one other view, although: the Pixelbook achieved its objective, and that objective is now not wanted. It’s a view that’s extra suitable with the method Google has typically taken with the Pixel {hardware} line all through the years.

2013, the yr of the Chromebook Pixel, was a special world. That machine wasn’t actually a tool. It was a imaginative and prescient. I imply, the factor had a beginning worth of $1,299. Even at this time’s HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook, criticized broadly for its excessive worth regardless of being principally flawless {hardware}, begins $150 decrease than that (and that’s with inflation and every thing else). 2013 ChromeOS — I believe even probably the most diehard followers can agree — was not in anyplace near the place it’s now.

It appears clear that Google didn’t intend to make a tool that individuals would possibly, shall we embrace, buy. The purpose was to point out producers what could possibly be carried out.

The 2017 Pixelbook was the identical kind of deal. Its chassis was distinctive — not simply amongst Chromebooks however amongst laptops generally. It was beneath half an inch thick, and it was fanless earlier than fanless was a development. I nonetheless bear in mind the day the overview unit arrived within the workplace I used to be working in on the time. I bear in mind it being handed across the desks, each worker wanting an opportunity to see it for themselves. We’d principally solely seen ChromeOS on ugly clunkers as much as that time — that it might energy such a groundbreaking chassis was a novel thought to a lot of the general public. Nobody deliberate on buying it, however everybody needed a glance.

Was the Pixelbook a bestseller? I can’t think about — and, after all, Google hasn’t made one other one. The Pixelbook Go was nice, but it surely occupied a special product class (and barely lower cost level) than its predecessor. It additionally didn’t come near the lust-worthy and envelope-pushing design the 2017 mannequin pioneered.

But I do assume the Pixelbook led to a sure mindset shift amongst many in tech media. It didn’t simply illustrate that ChromeOS might exist and thrive in a elaborate chassis. It planted the concept of their heads that there could possibly be a world — not in 2017, however perhaps within the not-so-distant future — the place paying $1,000 for a ChromeOS machine wasn’t completely loopy. As Mashable wrote in its glowing review, “The majority of Chromebooks are and probably will always be under-powered garbage. But that doesn’t mean every Chromebook needs to be.”

We’ve informed this story about Pixel-branded merchandise earlier than. Look to the Pixel cellphone. It’s hardly poised to change into a significant participant in a market that Apple and Samsung very solidly dominate, however Google retains placing them out to showcase its working system by itself phrases. The upcoming Pixel Watch, sizzling off of Google’s acquisition of Fitbit, can also be poised to enter a market the place Android units haven’t been at their finest, the place an instance could also be sorely wanted.

2022 will not be 2013. There are actually ChromeOS choices within the HP Dragonfly and Lenovo ThinkPad strains — two of probably the most established premium laptop computer households in historical past from two plain leaders in constructing high-quality {hardware}. Asus has been doing all types of funky issues with the working system, together with the premium Chromebook CX5 (which is nearly indistinguishable from a high-end Windows laptop computer) and the Chromebook Detachable CM3 with a dual-folding kickstand.

The ChromeOS house now not wants Google to guide by instance. Other firms are actually placing the working system in chassis that rival these of one of the best Windows-powered units. Whether shoppers will purchase them now’s one other story.