Why Would Google Bring Windows 10 to Pixelbook? (Premium)

There have been rumors all year that Google wants to bring Windows 10 to the Pixelbook. But no one seems to be asking the obvious question.

Why?

The rumors reappeared today with a report in XDA Developers claiming that Google's internal effort to certify the dual-booting of Windows 10 and Chrome OS is codenamed Campfire. The first release will support Google's Pixelbook, but it would likely expand to other Chromebooks over time, the report suggests.

Uh-huh.

Many will knee-jerk compare this rumored capability to Apple's Boot Camp technology, which lets Mac users dual-boot between macOS and various Windows versions. But that comparison is perhaps not so apt. After all, Apple's rationale for letting its customers turn their Macs into Frankenmacs is completely unrelated to why Google wants this for Chromebook.

Think about it. Apple has historically made most of its profits and revenues on hardware sales. That's been true of the iPhone era. It was true previously with iPod. And it was very much true of the Mac, too, back when that was Apple's primary (or only) business.

That is, the decision-making process for Boot Camp was always easily-understood: The Mac of 10 or 15 years ago was decidedly lacking in native applications, and Apple needed to add this functionality to the platform to ensure that customers would buy its hardware. What mattered was not macOS---or, in that day, OS X---but Mac sales. Not software. But hardware.

So what about Google?

Google's business isn't about selling hardware directly to customers. It's about ensuring that its software platforms---Chrome OS and Android---are distributed to as many people as possible so that those users can be exposed to Google's apps and services and thus the advertising in them. Google's profits and revenues are indirect.

In this model, Google wouldn't benefit much even if it did convince more people to buy Chromebooks because the devices can run Windows 10. After all, those customers would have to pay for Windows 10, too, at a cost of $100 to $150 per machine. And if they did run Windows 10, they'd be less likely to run Google apps and services or be impacted by Google's advertising.

Put simply, allowing customers to run Windows 10 on Pixelbook and other Chromebooks doesn't make any sense at all.

So there must be some other reason why Google is making this push.

One potential candidate is developers: After all, Windows 10 provides access to a wide range of developers environments and tools. This is the reason that Google is bringing Linux application support to Chrome OS, after all.

Maybe. But that's a fairly small audience overall. And Google is targeting the mainstream, already, with Chromebook. Why go to a great effort to introduce more complexity and cost to this system for such a small gain?

XDA Developers has its own theory, that Google "sorely needs to demonstrate" that it is open in the wake of its massive EU antitrust fine. That's patently si...

Gain unlimited access to Premium articles.

With technology shaping our everyday lives, how could we not dig deeper?

Thurrott Premium delivers an honest and thorough perspective about the technologies we use and rely on everyday. Discover deeper content as a Premium member.

Tagged with

Share post

Please check our Community Guidelines before commenting

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Thurrott © 2024 Thurrott LLC