Google emphasizes repairable Chromebooks for education as it combats cheap Windows laptops

Google announced via its Google for Education blog that it is starting a repair program to help schools repair Chromebooks in-house and make it into a valuable training opportunity for students looking into the IT field.

Google says, 50 million students and teachers are using Chromebooks while making bold claims about the sustainability these laptops bring to the table through efficiency and added durability. A study commissioned by Google cited on the page says that its manufacturing partners build hardware that uses 46 per cent less energy than competing products.

This post comes from Chrome OS VP John Solomon, who wrote how the company "worked with these same partners to make Chromebook components interchangeable, reusable and safely disposable." Another blog written today by the Product Manager for Chrome OS, Racha Slaoui, highlights the "new line" of select Chromebooks on an education-focused site to help school IT departments buy the right Chromebooks.

Many of the featured models aren't entirely new: The Acer Chromebook Spin 713 came out last year, and the HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook is a slight upgrade from its Windows predecessor. Software-wise, as long as the models are new, they should have eight years of Chrome OS security updates, but manufacturers are still in charge of how the hardware is generally supported, including what happens to warranties when they're done. auto repairs. :

Before making a decision about auto repair, contact your device manufacturer to find out how your warranty might be affected. Some device manufacturers may provide rigorous repair training to protect your warranty, and others may recommend self-repair only for out-of-warranty devices.

Chromebook sales soared during the pandemic, with OEMs shipping a total of 30 million laptops in 2020. Google already had a space in the K-12 education market, with nearly 60 percent of all computer purchases being Chromebooks in 2018.

Two important issues for education IT departments looking to manage a fleet of new computers are cost and the ability to integrate the technology into their environment. Windows computers suit many institutions running in an Active Directory environment, but the costs of buying Windows laptops on a large scale compared to Chromebooks have been quite high. Microsoft is trying to change that by announcing the very Chromebook-like Surface Laptop SE last year, which at $249 would be cheap and easier to deploy for environments that haven't yet switched to G-Suite.

Google chose a favourable time to launch its Self-Repair program with lawmakers' right to self-repair defense increasing enough that companies like Apple and Microsoft have recently been forced to respond.