Valentina Palladino
Google’s {hardware} division continues to be unable to subject a constant, dependable {hardware} choice. A report from The Verge claims Google has “canceled the subsequent model of its Pixelbook laptop computer and dissolved the workforce chargeable for constructing it.” This has been the case for a number of years, however the one new Chromebooks on the market shall be ones from third events.
The final laptop computer launched by the corporate was the Chromebook Go in 2019, which remains to be on the market at retailer.google.com. Shortly after that system’s launch, reviews surfaced that the laptop computer and pill division was being downsized. Whereas the pill plans managed to recuperate because of Android, the laptop computer plans are apparently lifeless. The final credible Google laptop computer rumors had been from the lead-up to the Google Tensor/Pixel 6 launch. Google was rumored to be making its personal chips and, together with a telephone (Pixel 6) rumors, constantly claimed a laptop computer model of the chip could be taking place. Google {Hardware} SVP Rick Osterloh mentioned as not too long ago as Might that the corporate was “going to do Pixelbooks sooner or later,” and the report says “the system was far alongside in improvement and anticipated to debut subsequent 12 months” earlier than it was canceled.
The explanation for the dissolution of the Pixelbook workforce is seemingly Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s cost-cutting. The Google CEO mentioned in August that “productiveness as a complete is just not the place it must be for the headcount we now have” and warned that the corporate could be “consolidating the place investments overlap and streamlining processes.” The Verge’s report says, “The Pixelbook workforce and the Pixelbook itself had been casualties of that consolidation and redeployment.”
Taking Google {Hardware} critically as an actual enterprise has at all times been troublesome. Google treats the {hardware} market like a small facet passion and solely sells gadgets in a small variety of nations. Google {Hardware}’s product strains are barely product “strains” in any respect, with inconsistent releases and not one of the iterative yearly enhancements that appear to energy different {hardware} operations. With out an computerized yearly Pixelbook launch, Google’s timing with this relaunch would have been terrible. It final launched a Chromebook a 12 months earlier than the pandemic, and when the pandemic hit and Chromebook gross sales had been at an all-time excessive, Google had nothing to supply. Google’s Pixelbook would have arrived simply earlier than Chromebook gross sales crashed again to Earth.
The instability of Google {Hardware} means no lifeless product is ever really lifeless. Google give up making tablets in 2015, got here again for Chrome OS tablets in 2018, then give up for one more three years, and now it is planning to launch a brand new Android pill in 2023. Certainly, we’ll get one other Google laptop computer sometime, however we’ll simply have to attend just a few extra years.
