Chromebook pixel count spurs Apple marketing shift

Posted:
in General Discussion edited February 2014
Google's Chromebook Pixel outperforms Apple's Retina MacBooks in one particular spec, and Apple recently changed the way it markets its notebooks to reflect that reality.

marketing


[Update:] The product page still features the "highest-resolution notebook" language, but it's no longer the top item. The language is now the second item, and it appears to be reserved to the 15-inch model. The 15-inch model has more than five million pixels, while the 12.9-inch Chromebook Pixel has just over 4.58 million.

Apple, never shy in touting the specifications of its devices when they are at the top of industry offerings, used to market its 13- and 15-inch Retina MacBook Pros as "The highest-resolution notebook ever. And the second-highest." That's no longer the case, though, and the product page for the Retina MacBooks has changed to reflect that.

more marketing


Bested ? at least in terms of resolution ? the Retina MacBook page now reads "high performance has never been so well defined."

Introducing the Chromebook Pixel in February, Google made sure to focus on the device's high-resolution screen. The Pixel's 2560x1700, 12.9-inch, touch-enabled LCD display has a pixel density of 239ppi. Apple's 15-inch and 13-inch Retina MacBooks have 220ppi and 227ppi densities, respectively.

chromedome


Instead of a traditional computer OS, Google's ChromeBooks run a browser-based operating system developed by Google. While Google has continually upgraded Chrome OS since its release, bringing more features and capabilities, the OS still lags far behind Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, and even mobile operating systems such as Android and iOS in terms of capabilities. A variety of apps are available for Chrome OS, but Google faced some criticism for releasing a premium-priced product ? the Pixel starts at $1,299 ? that lacks the power, space, and application ecosystem of similarly-priced traditional notebooks.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 212
    matrix07matrix07 Posts: 1,993member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post



    Apple, never shy in touting the specifications of its devices when they are at the top of industry offerings, used to market its 13- and 15-inch Retina MacBook Pros as "The highest-resolution notebook ever. And the second-highest." That's no longer the case, though, and the product page for the Retina MacBooks has changed to reflect that.


    Captured after reading the news.


     


     


  • Reply 2 of 212
    The ChromeBook is a great concept. All it needs is applications. Apple is moving to cloud storage for iTunes and eventually other things. Google will make cloud applications better over time. The benefit of cloud storage for applications is that they all can be updated without the users even having to bother with it. People will have the latest versions all of the time. Viruses shouldn't be a problem with cloud based software.

    ChromeBooks will probably move to the Nexus 7 model whereby the devices are cheaper because the prices of applications and other services will become the profit center. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple eventually incorporates that model into it's marketing system. If ChromeBooks do get to the point of being very popular Apple will have to compete in the hardware department price arena. The software might become Apple's profit center.
  • Reply 3 of 212
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member


    Originally Posted by matrix07 View Post

    Captured after reading the news.


     


    That's even on the same page. And this is on the next:


     


  • Reply 4 of 212

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Smallwheels View Post



    The ChromeBook is a great concept. All it needs is applications. Apple is moving to cloud storage for iTunes and eventually other things. Google will make cloud applications better over time. The benefit of cloud storage for applications is that they all can be updated without the users even having to bother with it. People will have the latest versions all of the time. Viruses shouldn't be a problem with cloud based software.



    ChromeBooks will probably move to the Nexus 7 model whereby the devices are cheaper because the prices of applications and other services will become the profit center. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple eventually incorporates that model into it's marketing system. If ChromeBooks do get to the point of being very popular Apple will have to compete in the hardware department price arena. The software might become Apple's profit center.


     


    It's a lousy product. There's no way you can create high-end applications for it since you can't actually write native code for it. All it does is run Web Apps inside a browser based OS. It's only good for basic tasks like e-mail, browsing, social interaction or creating basic documents. You can't do anything requiring graphical power (photo or video editing, illustration or even games). It would be useless for web developers since you don't have a way to check your website on multiple browsers for compatibility. You can't code or develop software on it since you're never going to see a Web App compiler (well, they could off-load the compiling to a third party but what programmer is going to trust their code to someone else to compile?).


     


    And when you try and rape people $1,300 for a high-end version it's downright stupid. High-end hardware that lacks the software to do any high-end work.


     


    Bottom line: great for simple tasks, useless for real work.

  • Reply 5 of 212
    matrix07matrix07 Posts: 1,993member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Smallwheels View Post



    The benefit of cloud storage for applications is that they all can be updated without the users even having to bother with it. People will have the latest versions all of the time. 


    And what if we don't like the update? This sounds great in theory but in practice I feel it will not be as great.

  • Reply 6 of 212
    matrix07matrix07 Posts: 1,993member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


     


    That's even on the same page. And this is on the next:


     




    lol.

  • Reply 7 of 212
    steven n.steven n. Posts: 1,229member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Smallwheels View Post



    The ChromeBook is a great concept. All it needs is applications. Apple is moving to cloud storage for iTunes and eventually other things. Google will make cloud applications better over time. The benefit of cloud storage for applications is that they all can be updated without the users even having to bother with it. People will have the latest versions all of the time. Viruses shouldn't be a problem with cloud based software.



    ChromeBooks will probably move to the Nexus 7 model whereby the devices are cheaper because the prices of applications and other services will become the profit center. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple eventually incorporates that model into it's marketing system. If ChromeBooks do get to the point of being very popular Apple will have to compete in the hardware department price arena. The software might become Apple's profit center.


    It is still 5-10 years off.  Google with ChromeBooks like like Microsoft with tablets.  They see the potential but have the timing and implementation way way off.


     


    At this point, ChromeOS has 0.02% of web share usage worldwide and only 0.06%(and down 0.01%) in the US. Given ChromeOS is just another web browser thin client OS, you would expect a much higher web presence.

  • Reply 8 of 212
    charlitunacharlituna Posts: 7,217member
    They didn't have a lot of choice in the matter since to leave it would be false advertising and they could be sued.
  • Reply 8 of 212
    cnocbuicnocbui Posts: 3,613member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Smallwheels View Post



    The ChromeBook is a great concept. All it needs is applications. Apple is moving to cloud storage for iTunes and eventually other things. Google will make cloud applications better over time. The benefit of cloud storage for applications is that they all can be updated without the users even having to bother with it. People will have the latest versions all of the time. Viruses shouldn't be a problem with cloud based software.



    ChromeBooks will probably move to the Nexus 7 model whereby the devices are cheaper because the prices of applications and other services will become the profit center. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple eventually incorporates that model into it's marketing system. If ChromeBooks do get to the point of being very popular Apple will have to compete in the hardware department price arena. The software might become Apple's profit center.


     




    I do not share your enthusiasm and belief in all this cloud hoopla.  I don't get it.  In my life high speed, ubiquitous and cheap access to the Web is still science fiction, not reality.  Local storage is many times cheaper, faster and more convenient than remote, so what use is the cloud?


     


    I believe all of Apple's servers are located in the US.  The paradigm of all Apple users in Europe, having all their data stored in the US and dependent on that infrastructure always being available strikes me as crazy.  Egypt and many countries downstream have been disconnected from the Web when a ship dragged its anchor and severed a major cable.  From a security stand point, no company or individual that has commercially sensitive documents or data should rely on Apple, Google or any other US company as custodian of them.  In all likelihood, given past precedent, the NSA probably has full unfettered access to the lot.


     


    I would rather see Apple develop a personal cloud device.  Something like a battery/mains powered data archive, accessible via high speed WiFi by all one's devices.

  • Reply 10 of 212
    steven n.steven n. Posts: 1,229member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by matrix07 View Post


    Captured after reading the news.


     


     




    The ambiguity of "resolution" on monitors.  If you search for "monitor resolution" you get almost all discussions talking about 1920X1200, 1024X768, 1400X1200 and very few talking about PPI or DPI. Technically, resolution is a measurement of angular distance. In practice, most refer to pixel counts.


     


    For example, when asked "What is the resolution of your digital camera?" I never said, I had 10 µm pixels when discussing my 1D.  I said 4MP. Oddly, however, when people discuss lenses, resolution is almost always lppm (line pairs per mm) and is a more accurate use of the term.

  • Reply 11 of 212
    Pixel? A product for a non-existant market. How stupid would you have to be to buy a mostly useless computer and have all of your data stolen by Google, when you can buy a MBR for just a little more...
  • Reply 12 of 212
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by EricTheHalfBee View Post




     


    Bottom line: great for simple tasks, useless for real work.



    Isn't that the typical usage pattern for 90% of consumers?

  • Reply 13 of 212
    charlitunacharlituna Posts: 7,217member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by cnocbui View Post


    I would rather see Apple develop a personal cloud device.  Something like a battery/mains powered data archive, accessible via high speed WiFi by all one's devices.



     


    I doubt they would create a device but they might add functionality into their current server such that it could act as a home cloud server. 

  • Reply 14 of 212
    charlitunacharlituna Posts: 7,217member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by mstone View Post


    Isn't that the typical usage pattern for 90% of consumers?



     


    Possibly even more like 80-85%. Which is something Apple recognized and why they released the iPad after all. 


     


    In fact I think they could have released the iPad earlier. Possibly even with the iPhone. Or perhaps the year after. They were already working in it even before they decided to shift to a phone. 

  • Reply 15 of 212
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by charlituna View Post




     


     


    Possibly even more like 80-85%. Which is something Apple recognized and why they released the iPad after all. 


     



    One of the biggest sellers in the App Store is games. With no native apps, the Chromebook will most likely depend on Flash for games. It will be curious to see how they monetize that.

  • Reply 16 of 212


    Nobody chooses a computer based on a single metric, like pixel count. That's like choosing a digital camera based solely on megapixel count, ignoring the optics, storage options, body style, controls, and even other qualities of the sensor. The 13" MacBook Pro Retina is still a fine all-purpose UNIX computer with a great display. I'm debating whether to step up to a 15" MacBook Pro Retina, or just get a 15" non-Retina MBP and save the cash.

  • Reply 17 of 212
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post


     I'm debating whether to step up to a 15" MacBook Pro Retina, or just get a 15" non-Retina MBP and save the cash.



    The way I look at it is that any MBP is going to last 5 years at least. Might as well go for the top of the line. The difference in price amortized over 5 years is not that much. At least that is the logic I used when purchasing my 15" rMBP. My last 2006 MBP served me well and I'd still be using it except it wouldn't run ML. Even so, since I saved all the packaging, it made a great Christmas present for a 6-year old who will be running Lion for a few more years, hopefully. Of course 6-year olds are not very careful with stuff so might get trashed in no time but it did look like brand new when he got it.

  • Reply 18 of 212
    matrix07matrix07 Posts: 1,993member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Steven N. View Post


    The ambiguity of "resolution" on monitors.  If you search for "monitor resolution" you get almost all discussions talking about 1920X1200, 1024X768, 1400X1200 and very few talking about PPI or DPI. Technically, resolution is a measurement of angular distance. In practice, most refer to pixel counts.



    And Apple can easily claim that 2880X1800 is higher than 2560X1700. I guess it's safe there.

  • Reply 19 of 212
    matrix07 wrote: »
    And what if we don't like the update? This sounds great in theory but in practice I feel it will not be as great.

    In practice, users don't really like updates. Especially UI changes. It just means that instead of actually getting their work done, they have to relearn aspects of the tool they use to get work done.

    Our company switched to Google docs, and then back to MS Office, because the non-tech users grew sick of randomly having changes in their workflow forced upon them. At least with MS Office when they were upgraded, it could be planned to coincide with a period f time which was less busy for them.

    I believe Google has made some changes to improve their deployment since, but with office 365, it seems pretty pointless for us to go back to google docs anymore. Plus they don't have the trust users had in them anymore (which was the only reason IT which is notoriously conservative agreed to the switch in the first place).
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