I don't believe you. And neither does the market because these Chromebooks don't sell. As with all perfect things, once one of the essential components go down, it is useless. Or people will buy this on price and want to push it to its limits and find out they can't. Why? Because it's an INTERNET BROWSER. That limits it but it's not what the buyer really had in mind. They see a internet browser in the form of a laptop and think they are the same.
By the way, regular PCs are not double the price. They are $350 and up. And this device is only as fast as the flash drive and network chip and connection in it.
There are PCs under $350 as well. But the Chromebook has a much better user experience (imo) than any computer without a solid state drive (even though the Acer chromebook has a hard drive), and those all start at a minimum of like $600. Chromebooks are fast, because the OS is so stripped down.
I've never had a wireless card fail. The only parts I've ever had fail in a notebook are the harddrive and the screen. And at $200, a Chromebook is practically a throw away computer like a tablet, if it lasts a few years it was well worth it.
I don't need more than a web browser on 99% of my usage, and I have a primary computer (a desktop in my case) for when I need more. My email is through a browser. I read things through a browser. I watch movies and listen to music through a browser. I create documents in a browser. I can play games in a browser. I can even do limited coding within a browser if I just want to do some quick scripting.
And worst case, the $200 Acer chromebook is still a full x86 computer with great specs (better than Atom or E-350) for the price and I can throw Ubuntu on it. At that point, there are no limitations.
You won't find any other computer that's as cheap with specs and build quality as good as the new Chromebooks. They're super light weight, have good battery life, great (user) performance.
And I think you'll be surprised on the market performance of these chromebooks at the new lower pricepoints.
http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-E...nav_e_2_541966
The Samsung Chromebook is Amazon's top selling laptop (with the 3g model at #15), and it's been out of stock for basically the last 2 months. The Acer is currently #12. Both are selling way over their MSRPs, showing demand is high. They're sold out in almost every Best Buy.
Chromebooks weren't worth it when they cost as much as a PC or more. But the new slim form factors with slim price points are perfect, they're PCs that do less, cost less, and are more mobile. It's a market segment that should have been served by tablets but was hampered by crappy hardware (inferior build quality, Intel Atom processors), a bad OS for the hardware/form factor (Windows has always been bloated both in UI and performance), and lack of widely available low cost models. Tablets are taking over low end PC sales because they're cheap and offer a better low end experience. Chromebooks are an attempt to bring the keyboard back to a market Microsoft abandoned.