Google Pixelbook “Nocturne” Leaks

Image credit: About Chromebooks

Just weeks ahead of Google’s annual hardware event, yet another new Pixel-branded device has leaked. And it’s a Pixelbook 2-in-1/tablet PC.

“I believe this is the first image of what I’d call the Pixelbook tablet, also known as Nocturne, which should debut on October 9,” a post at About Chromebooks reveals. Here it is.

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Image credit: About Chromebooks

And… yeah. It looks a lot like a terrible little Windows 8 tablet that I first experienced in New Zealand, with little tabs holding the tablet/display to the keyboard base. This is a design that Windows-based PC makers gave up on years ago.

Still, that Google is pushing forward with its plans to replace Android with Chrome OS in tablets is interesting. And this design suggests that they are now confident that years of Android/Chrome OS integration work have finally paid off.

 

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Conversation 43 comments

  • jrickel96

    20 September, 2018 - 10:06 am

    <p>While sales are declining and marketshare has never really grown much. They're only moving it to tablet to try to trick people into buying them. Sales are down for ChromeOS. Marketshare is horrible. The platform will be dead within a few years.</p>

    • chrisltd

      20 September, 2018 - 10:13 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#325692">In reply to jrickel96:</a></em></blockquote><p>Are sales down? What's your source of information?</p>

    • wolters

      Premium Member
      20 September, 2018 - 10:20 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#325692">In reply to jrickel96:</a></em></blockquote><p>In Schools, they are going like gangbusters…and some are even giving kids Chromebooks. </p><p><br></p><p>I am not Anti-Chromebook as I do have a Pixelbook. But I still cannot see their appeal in the education market. I've not been able to see that plan clearly. </p>

      • shameermulji

        20 September, 2018 - 10:29 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#325703">In reply to wolters:</a></em></blockquote><p>Schools are the only segment where Chromebooks are seeing any level of success</p>

        • VancouverNinja

          Premium Member
          21 September, 2018 - 1:38 pm

          <blockquote><em><a href="#325709">In reply to shameermulji:</a></em></blockquote><p>And that is coming to an end now.</p>

      • Sprtfan

        20 September, 2018 - 10:37 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#325703">In reply to wolters:</a></em></blockquote><p>Cheap, easy to manage, and the lack of apps is not as big of a problem in the education market</p><p>That said, my daughters school is 1 to 1 Chromebook. She has dyslexia and needs a screen reader at times. Between issues with an audiobook app not working with Chrome and problems with the built in screen reader, she needs to use a Windows laptop instead. The Immersive Reader from Microsoft is pretty impressive. </p><h1><br></h1><p><br></p>

      • VancouverNinja

        Premium Member
        21 September, 2018 - 1:37 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#325703">In reply to wolters:</a></em></blockquote><p>No they are not. They have already plateaued and look to have shrunk slightly. Surface Go is going to speed up Chromebooks demise in the K-5 segment. Its what schools have wanted forever from MS. Having kids use a device that they cannot continue with past grade 5 and that has no usage in the real world doesn't sit well with Educators. Its a waste of money and time.</p>

      • jrickel96

        21 September, 2018 - 11:02 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#325703">In reply to wolters:</a></em></blockquote><p>Not this year. Do a lot of dealing with Best Buy corporate sales for business purchases and they link in to education and do provide purchasing for many school systems across the country.</p><p><br></p><p>Sales were down this year to education for Chrome and up for Windows and iPad. </p><p><br></p><p>Universities have never purchased them en masse and have warned schools that Chromebooks are not the norm at the collegiate level.</p><p><br></p><p>I also know retailers like Best Buy are paid by Google just to show Chromebooks to try to present them as a viable option. If not for subsidies their stock and space for display would be much, much lower.</p><p><br></p><p>I suspect as we see reports come out early next year, we'll see the beginning of the decline of Chromebooks in education here in the US. </p><p><br></p><p>Google is also seeing major players back out of G-Cloud and many G-Suite buyers leaving at the end of their contracts. I've heard to expect declines in both for Google and that G-Cloud may fall into fifth place and G-Suite may fully fade over the next several years.</p><p><br></p><p>Google is entering a phase of diminishment where it will lose a lot of revenue and profit due to privacy laws, antitrust, and lawsuits. As that occurs, they will have to pull back on subsidies and charge more for services or end the services. </p><p><br></p><p>ChromeOS right now is at around .5% of deskops. It accounts for 10-15 million total installs. It's not going anywhere.</p><p><br></p><p>It's also worth nothing that if you have 2 million sales in a year, growth of 100,000 is nice growth of 5%, but it's not a threat to anything. Chromebooks could triple their annual sales and very little would happen. This platform is effectively dead in the water. Once Google can't subsidize it anymore it'll be dead. 2-3 years tops.</p><p><br></p><p>And just remember that there are CURRENTLY as many Windows Phone users in the world as Chromebook users.</p>

    • Sprtfan

      20 September, 2018 - 10:29 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#325692">In reply to jrickel96:</a></em></blockquote><p>ChromeOS market share is around or below 1% but I thought it was still showing growth. </p>

      • VancouverNinja

        Premium Member
        21 September, 2018 - 1:37 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#325708">In reply to Sprtfan:</a></em></blockquote><p>Nope slipped further..it's always been DOA. These articles and pumpers are irrational when it comes to Chrome OS.</p><p><br></p>

        • jrickel96

          21 September, 2018 - 11:12 pm

          <blockquote><em><a href="#326578">In reply to VancouverNinja:</a></em></blockquote><p>I'm always amused that Paul wants to cover Chromebooks and treat them as threats when they can't even come up to a fraction of the Macs out there. Macs are a much greater threat to PCs. </p><p><br></p><p>Chromebooks are dead. Yeah, they still make them and OEMs can repurpose PC parts to sell a few here and there, but they are taking a step back and really dying. Google trying to make them into tablets shows how they are desperately trying to make it work.</p><p><br></p><p>But Google is such a huge failure of a company. They've been amazing in search and monetizing ads. They've had little other success. They should have led cloud but they have fallen into a distant fourth place behind MS, Amazon, and IBM. G-Suite hasn't made any serious inroads. G-Suite is about to lose some huge clients and drop to around 12% within the next 12 months – and quite a bit of that reported usages is K-12. I think they are at around 7-8% in Enterprise. Android is huge because it's free (kinda), but it's likely to fragment more as anti-trust interests begin to pick at it. </p><p><br></p><p>I suspect in the next few years we will see Google begin to wind down many of their subsidized experiments like G-Suite, ChromeOS, and also begin to update Android less frequently or stop altogether if it doesn't further their ad revenue game. They will focus on their core business. </p><p><br></p><p>Mark my words – Google is about to go into diminishment mode. I suspect it'll be a very big narrative by the end of 2019.</p>

  • dcdevito

    20 September, 2018 - 10:14 am

    <p>Not crazy about the design, but if the price is right it won't matter much</p>

    • nicholas_kathrein

      20 September, 2018 - 10:45 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#325695">In reply to dcdevito:</a></em></blockquote><p>Price will be to high for most. These are "premium" so starting at $999 probably. We'll see if it will be Windows 10 certified by the announcement. If so it will be running Chrome OS with your option to run Linux apps, Android Apps, do Android Studio, and possible Windows 10.</p>

  • ReformedCtrlZ

    Premium Member
    20 September, 2018 - 10:15 am

    <p>That report is from a third part keyboard company so hopefully google puts out something better themselves</p>

  • tommorton14

    Premium Member
    20 September, 2018 - 10:16 am

    <p>That is a third party keyboard made by Brydge. That is NOT the keyboard Google will be selling with this tablet. </p>

    • Alex Taylor

      20 September, 2018 - 4:23 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#325697">In reply to tommorton14:</a></em></blockquote><p>Yes, while I understand Paul's derogatory tone towards the keyboard, it's a very similar design to those Brydge manufacturers for iPads and possibly others. </p><p>The fact they are still in business would indicate that <em>someone </em>finds the form factor of use. Certainly not me, but I guess anyone who has a tablet that they want to sometimes use stood up like a laptop with adjustable hinge? </p>

  • dontbe evil

    20 September, 2018 - 10:18 am

    <p>toyBook</p>

  • nicholas_kathrein

    20 September, 2018 - 10:43 am

    <p>Actually they are going to announce major upgrades to Chrome OS for Tablet Mode. It looks really promising. </p>

  • Daekar

    20 September, 2018 - 11:01 am

    <p>God that is homely looking. If I were a coffee shop hipster, I would be ashamed to show up with one of those.</p>

  • Davor Radman

    20 September, 2018 - 11:14 am

    <p>I don't understand in what possible way can Surface kb be better than this? This is a true laptop, and a true tablet. Surface is just a quasi- laptop.</p>

    • VancouverNinja

      Premium Member
      21 September, 2018 - 1:33 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#325731">In reply to Markiz von Schnitzel:</a></em></blockquote><p>???? It doesn't really qualify as a platform – no one uses it. To try and compare an OS with virtually zero support to the dominate global OS platform is nonsensical. Any Surface product / or Windows 10 device is a superior choice to use. </p>

  • PeterC

    20 September, 2018 - 11:26 am

    <p>oh dear. Thats distinctly underwhelming isn't it. Surely its not the actual product? Must be a fake mock up. Im not a google user in terms of software/services, but the Pixelbook was a great looker, really impressive to get your hands on. But this……</p><p><br></p><p>edit&gt;&gt; ok so the keyboards an accessory, phew, will reserve judgement till it’s released</p>

  • rmlounsbury

    Premium Member
    20 September, 2018 - 11:49 am

    <p>I'm pretty sure this image is two different products. It is Nocturne which is Google's tablet based device and a Brydge Keyboard (very popular in the iPad bluetooth keyboard space). I believe the leak came from Brydge which is why it is featured with one of their keyboards. </p><p><br></p><p>So this would be the tablet plus an accessory from a third party vendor. If Nocturne itself is iPad like and sold as a tablet akin to the iPad then this is fine and probably would have appeal to plenty of people looking to go with a table form factor instead of a laptop for mobile computing. </p><p><br></p><p>I think Google could find success in the tablet space for people that want a tablet but don't won't to buy into the Apple ecosystem. </p>

  • Tony Barrett

    20 September, 2018 - 11:54 am

    <p>For the average consumer – a Chromebook will do everything they need, without all the Windows baggage. School's love 'em as they're so easy to manage and simple do deploy. If Apple have brainwashed half the world into believing the iPhone is the be-all-and-end-all, then MS have done the same with the Windows. Most DO NOT NEED WINDOWS if they actually sat down and thought about it. It's just what's familiar, what Microsoft's 'partners' are pressured to sell, and what MS tell us we can't be without. Something has to change – the world is in a weird lock-in loop at the moment, and it's suffocating.</p>

    • locust infested orchard inc

      20 September, 2018 - 1:41 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#325741">In reply to ghostrider:</a></em></blockquote><p>Yeah, what the World needs is a device that has the unenviable capability of accessing only Fakebook, Twatter, YouLube, Poogle, Snotchat, and Instagratification – Pixelbook and Android phones are those devices.</p><p><br></p><p>Today's children will certainly have a head start on becoming social delinquents.</p>

      • VancouverNinja

        Premium Member
        21 September, 2018 - 1:30 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#325826">In reply to locust infested orchard inc:</a></em></blockquote><p>Chrome OS is now losing market share in K-5 market. Its all over but Google refuses to acknowledge what everyone knows already. They have nothing to protect Android in the future and that's why they persist in the futile effort against Windows 10. I hate the waste they are creating with these things – if they were being used okay but no one is using them.</p>

  • jimchamplin

    Premium Member
    20 September, 2018 - 11:56 am

    <p>That keyboard base looks suspiciously like the keyboard base on my Dell Venue Pro… Even those bumpers are the same.</p>

  • Bats

    20 September, 2018 - 8:02 pm

    <p>WAIT….years of Android/Chrome OS integration has paid off? </p><p><br></p><p>WAIT A SECOND. I thought this thing failed! According to Paul Thurrott he said on May 5, 2017 "….Google's vision of Android Apps on Chrome has collapsed."</p>

    • VancouverNinja

      Premium Member
      21 September, 2018 - 1:27 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#326117">In reply to Bats:</a></em></blockquote><p>If he said that he is right – it is a complete disaster. I have never had a individual ask about using a Chromebook but if they did it would be hard to hold back the laughter.</p>

  • Illusive_Man

    21 September, 2018 - 6:21 am

    <p>Looks like a solid notebook that will likely do everything the Surfacebook Go does just for cheaper and with a longer battery life.</p><p><br></p><p>We have to remember Paul’s opinions do not represent the typical views on these devices by the average consumer. </p><p><br></p><p><br></p>

    • scotttech1

      21 September, 2018 - 12:23 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#326345">In reply to Illusive_Man:</a></em></blockquote><p>Cheaper? Google's pixelbook is pretty on par with the surface price wise. Why would this one be any different?</p>

    • VancouverNinja

      Premium Member
      21 September, 2018 - 1:25 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#326345">In reply to Illusive_Man:</a></em></blockquote><p>Dude Chrome OS has a .5% market share last data out. These things need to go the way of the Dodo. They are useless paperweights. </p>

  • VancouverNinja

    Premium Member
    21 September, 2018 - 1:23 pm

    <p>Last stats Chrome OS is at .5% market share; why must they keep up pushing out devices that are going to end up in the garbage??? For Corporate ego? It just underscores how bad a corporation Google really is.</p><p><br></p><p>Paul when are you finally going to write up an article about how Chrome OS is a complete an utter failure? I really don't like the environmental waste of these things – they just don't end up being used by the majority of the purchasers – they just go back to Windows 10.</p>

  • summersk59

    22 September, 2018 - 3:31 am

    <p>I find some of the comments interesting from the armchair critics, things like Chrome OS is a failure, only .5% of the market and so on. Unless one has truly tried a Chromebook for an extended time, how can one have an educated opinion? I recall hearing the same comments way back in 1997 that Apple was a goner and won't see the year 2000… I guess the prediction went the same direction of the Y2K histaria. I've used pretty much all the OS's since the mid 1990's including Linux, currently have Windows, Linux, and OS X in my home. But my daily computer is a Pixelbook, simply because most things I do are web based, like most everyone else does today. Unless you're locked in your parents basement trying to hack the US government, most folks today can get pretty much all their stuff done on Chrome OS…. just my thoughts. </p>

    • skane2600

      22 September, 2018 - 11:41 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#326713">In reply to summersk59:</a></em></blockquote><p>There's a difference between evaluating a product for your personal use vs. evaluating its market performance. I don't think many people were predicting that Apple was going to go out of business completely but they were in trouble and it took an unexpected bail-out from Microsoft to improve their situation.</p>

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