Fire Alarm Companies

We examine the numbers and calculate what losing Microsoft if Chrome has books by those who could use it to get taken. Or should anti-virus companies worry more?

After years in which it insisted that there is no intention, in direct competition with Microsoft, had Google with parking in front of their tanks and in the middle of Microsoft 's turf. The Chrome Book - a "thin client" laptop, which will have virtually no local storage - starts today, Wednesday, and is the first serious challenge to the Windows / Office hegemony in two decades.

The Chrome Book doesn 't run Windows, it is Google' s second operating system (for Android), ChromeOS, which is so far that it just runs a browser and the associated programs stripped. No Windows. No Microsoft Office. Microsoft no nothing, in fact. ChromeOS is a Linux-based system that Google has worked since 2009. And now it 's always real, with "Chrome Books" Samsung and Acer (and unofficially by the Australian company Kogan, which is to be sold in Australia and Great Britain).

But start with the threat to Microsoft and the promise of Google Chrome browser is minimal. First, the Chrome Book is not aligned to the average consumer. It \ s bread and butter '. S to the enterprise customers that use Microsoft \ aligned "Google, the Chrome Book, aims, Microsoft' s lunch - and dinner and breakfast at how off by nibbling on Windows.? and Office revenue by finding the company that has grown tired of Office upgrades and aren 't that keen on the Windows upgrade cycle - and the associated costs - either the other goal. schools - where Microsoft calls its first customers.

Chrome is, make no mistake, a dagger through Microsoft 's willing heart. The only question is whether it 's made of steel or rubber.

Google claims that the total cost of ownership (TCO) for chrome books 50% less than for an equivalent Windows PC - about $ 1,500 per Chromebook compared to the estimated $ 3,000 per PC figure Gartner pulls (which is the cost of include machine, software and especially the support). "We 've confirmed that figure with $ 3,000 enterprise customers," said Sundar Pichal, senior vice-president at the Google Chrome project.

I asked the team what their goals for sales, they said that they believe don \ t 't all (what I have don' that You 've got to have goals, otherwise the manufacturer won' t accept the treaty, and Google is working on is directed internally to all the time). They said they 're more interested in "how much users use it, and how much they like it. If we focus on that more and more units will ship \."

If you haven 't had the memo, here' s in detail about the chrome Books:
• 12.1 in laptops
• 16GB SSD memory (Kogan models offer 30 GB)
• 2GB RAM (1GB on the Kogan model)
• Intel Atom 1.66GHz
• Samsung or Acer (or unofficially, Kogan) made

OK - so far, like a large screened netbook. And now in more detail:
• 8-second boot time
• 6-week update cycle for the operating system and browser
• will be available from the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain and Italy 15 June
• Price in UK: ? 349 for Wi-Fi model, ? 399 for 3G-enabled version. (Kogan: about ? 225).

In essence, you can check out some local applications, the method of execution through the browser, but Google 's idea that you' ll do all through the browser. He says that companies are already interested with him.

"Of course," says the Web site, "You 're going to a wireless network need to be willing to use subject to the provider' s terms and conditions, and be willing to put up with his real life constraints, including, for example, [the network 's] speed and availability. If you do not have network access, functionality, which depends not be available. "

Google doesn 't really the eyes of the consumer - but if they happen along then it is happy to lap them. The real people they want to take these laptops are the companies that are already using Google Apps for Your Domain (Gayden) to run things like Google Docs and Spreadsheets. Yes, it's absolutely true that Google Docs isn '\ ta patch on Microsoft Office if you need to do something complicated. But many companies and many employees don 't need to make something too complicated . And they are the low hanging fruit that Google is after.

To the company spending $ 3,000 per year on a PC when you factor in the cost of help desk, antivirus, firewalls, backups and so on, Google says: We 'll rent the machine, including support for $ 28 per month per unit (in the U.S., UK prices are still not known), or $ 20 per unit for students. That works to $ 336 per unit per year or $ 240 for business education.

For it, "the argument that you (arguing that later) don 'Google \ t about antivirus or firewalls or backups to worry. The one thing about a Chromebook says Google? Destroy one, and all you have to do is is log on to a new one. All your data is still there. If a company get lost or stolen, there 's no data get stolen on the hard disk, and no way to break in the cloud data stored. Everything what 's lost is simply replaced some hardware.

For companies this is an amazing pitch. Yes, many people find the idea of ??cloud storage to believe. And schools - - more than is possible in many cases, but it 's quite to relocate businesses. (Disclosure: .. The Guardian uses Google Apps Other British newspapers including the Telegraph Media Group to do so)

Where 's profit for Google? "Users who use the web more", says Pichal. "And when people use the Web more, it 's good for Google, that'. S on the consumer side .. Then our profits to improve the business and school site, it 'sa clear sales business, we hope to have a successful business. "

Companies to operate don 't even Gayden: "we debate this a bit," says Pichal. "But we found that in many cases customers don 't want Google Apps, but they want to say, if they' re in single-or call-center, where they re 'with a help desk application. "(Imagine a giant call center switch from Windows to ChromeOS. The s \ blood's a vision, a Softie Micro \ chill '.)

Now, let 's get down to the numbers. Google says it has 3m company Gayden, and more than 30 active business users with Google Apps each day. Companies are replacing their desktop computers every three years, laptops every two years. Business sales account for approximately half of the 350 million PCs sold each year. The crucial question then is how many of those are in the 'mature markets "- North America and Europe - and thus could be targeted at longer term by ChromeOS.

Fortunately, we have made these figures available from IDC: 54.9 million desktops this year, laptops 105.4m, of which half of each of the companies are: as 27m desktops, laptops 52m this year will be bought replacement in Business market will be. (This is in an installed base in the mature markets of 740m PCs.)

Initially, you wouldn 't expect that many companies put the systems in Chrome, it' ll be experimental. But if they 're in that' s revenue, the 's lost both of Microsoft Windows and Office, and this was more painful losses over a longer period to be.

But even if all Gayden 30m-with ('t going to happen, because many of these companies their PCs for functions that can' what isn \ t should be done through the browser, they need native Windows applications) users to switch to ChromeOS, It wouldn 't a big impact at first have Microsoft. 30m PC is about $ 1.69bn of revenue and $ 1.2 billion profit for the Windows division, or about a third of a quarter 's sales and profits. And that 's, if every single customer Gayden shifted.

Sun ChromeOS isn 't an immediate or even medium-term threat to Windows. A greater threat, in fact, is the fact that it now has emerging markets such as China that are driving PC are revenue growth, and Microsoft found that the piracy diminishes their sales by 5% of what he gets in the West . The Steve Ballmer much more disturbing.

But the danger is the longer term, if the consumer to get the idea that Chrome will begin nifty books, and when large PC sites such as call centers to start dealing with them because of their low cost and interchangeability .. Here 's, where the simplicity / Antivirus arguments could kick in. ChromeOS is supposedly free of viruses, because at boot, when running a self-check called Verified boat, the detect and repair corruption in the software and use it as necessary. The browser tabs all run in their own sandbox, so nothing should get away from there anyway.

This is of course enormously disruptive to the security companies that have enabled anti-virus protection to Windows PCs in an industry worth tens of billions. The effect on them will probably be much greater if ChromeOS gets any traction in the enterprise. Of course. ChromeOS won 't stop people from clicking on phishing sites, but there should be a lot of fraud is the easiest shortcut. And the fact that everything is funneled through Google 's servers, which gets all kinds of malware scan, suggests that the real benefits can come from the far more protection than anything else.