The Apple-ish Google Chromebox

It’s quite uncanny how Applish the Google store is. The minimalism, the names of the products and, well, its ideas.

That said, the new device product offering from Google is intriguing. With Samsung’s success with the Nexus mobile phone, it seems that Google has found its technology partner of choice (although the Chromebook, not to be mistaken with the Macbook, comes in an Acer guise as well).

The latest addition to these devices is the Chromebox. And again, think Mac Mini, just black with different logos. But I am being overly judgemental of Google’s affinity to its arch-rival as its pricetag is the real kicker: $329.00 for the Chromebox, as opposed to the $599.00 pricetag of the fruitier option. Sjoe.

Going the whole “OS” route with an app store and having the whole operating system run more like a phone than a conventional computer, makes the device quite appealing, as Apple users are still awaiting their update to facilitate these changes. Also, the number of free apps is set to be considerably higher than Google’s competitors.

My natural concerns as an Apple user watching my friends who are using Linux and Android products struggle with hanging, apps not working and sluggishness, is that these Chrome OS devices will do the same. It’s the age old debate of “goed koop is duur koop” (that’s Afrikaans, for those of you who were, like, “good coop is der coop”). Would you rather — and do you have the money — to buy a tried and trusted product, or go the skimpy route and buy something cool and cheap?

At any rate, both Chrome OS and Apple’s OSX are based on the same linux kernel, and both should beat the pants of our dreaded Windows — which is a shouting match for another day.

And… all this is immaterial, because it still stands to be seen if they will ship these computers to Africa.

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