New Generation of Chromebooks Starts Late and with a Whimper (Premium)

The delayed launch of a Samsung Chromebook 2-in-1 is pretty much all you need to know about this erstwhile threat to Windows.

Which is to say, nothing to see here. At least not yet.

Two weeks ago, I noted that we were still waiting for the Chromebook revolution that never came. That article was based on the long-delayed timing of two things: the version of Chrome OS that will let Chromebooks run Android apps and the Google Play Store, and a supposed coming generation of touch-enabled devices that would make this combined platform make sense.

Google hasn't delivered on either. The company promised at its Google I/O conference in May 2016 that it expected to deliver Android app compatibility on Chromebooks by the end of last year. And it provided an exclusive peek at the next-generation Chromebooks that would ship alongside this software, to Wired. In September 2016. Because they were right around the corner!

Neither has happened, not really. (Only a handful of Chromebooks can run Android apps.) And Wired's breathless take on these new Chromebooks---devices that would "totally transform laptop design" and be "completely different from the laptops we’ve known before"---is laughable given what's happened since.

Which is to say, nothing has happened since. Until this month, when Samsung announced a long-ago-leaked set of Chromebook 2-in-1 devices---the physically identical Chromebook Plus and Chromebook Pro, which differ only by processor architecture---during CES. As if to hide the embarrassment of these me-too products and their months-long delay amid all of the noise of that show.

These Samsung Chromebooks do not totally transform laptop design, nor are they different, in any way, from the laptops we’ve known before. In fact, they're just yet another take on the convertible PC form factor. Which, by the way, debuted with Windows XP Tablet PC Edition in 2002.

Given the pedestrian nature of most Chromebooks, the Samsung models are, at least, a step up. They both feature 360-degree rotating touch screens, so they can be used like laptops or thick tablets. Just like Windows PCs. (And, just like a few Chromebooks, too.) They include a smart pen, a first for Chromebooks. But, again, just like Windows PCs.

Those two things are literally the only differentiators. But they also only differentiate these devices from previous Chromebooks. Windows PCs, again, have offered this functionality for years.

Or, as Wired put it: "Windows manufacturers have been experimenting with convertible and detachable devices for the last few years, but the combination of Android and Chrome will actually make them work."

Experimenting? Past few years? Ah boy.

Whatever. Google and then Wired (which was boorishly promoting Google's PR vision) both promised "a new generation of Chromebooks," not just two identical devices from one company. In fact, that's how Google described the launch of these Samsung devices, this month. As a new gen...