A few weeks ago Intel posted 2 videos featuring Chromebooks and they appear to be part of a bigger campaign to push ARM out of the market. Clearly Intel thinks that there’s something big worth fighting for here. The videos lead to a set of 15 Intel-commissioned reports from Principled Technologies that are all available to the public and listed below.
While the videos (embedded below) are fun, the reports are more interesting. They’re also a little more detailed than Microsoft’s attempt at steering us away from ChromeOS!
The reports focus on the Intel vs ARM argument which is significant because you don’t do a marketing push like this unless you feel there’s a risk that someone else could take over a large portion of what you think is going to be a very big market. We already know that Intel are already providing pre-configured and pre-validated Chromebook designs to OEMs so it looks like it could be a tough fight for ARM-architecture SoC manufacturers. Given that the latest Samsung Chromebook 2 has jumped from a Samsung ARM design to an Intel one, maybe it’s already game-over for ARM.
The reports cover the consumer, education, small business and enterprise segments and are worth saving for offline reading when you’ve got time. Clearly they are sponsored reports and shouldn’t be used in a business case but they cover the points you might need to consider when you’re assessing a Chromebook purchase for yourself, your company or your school. This assumes you’ve already done the Windows vs Chromebook comparison. If you haven’t, stay tuned to Chromebookworld because we’re currently working on a $200 Chromebook vs Windows laptop head-to-head that will help you.
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One thing I would have liked to have seen is something about total cost of ownership (TCO.) but Google already have a tool for that and it’s probably not one Intel could clearly win in a comparison of Core i3 vs the Arm-architecture Exynos!
15 reports from Intel – Why Intel Chromebooks are better than ARM Chromebooks
Comparing Chromebooks for consumers: Intel Celeron vs ARM – PDF
Comparing Chromebooks for consumers: Intel Celeron vs ARM infographic – PDF
Comparing Chromebooks for consumers: Intel Core i3 vs ARM – PDF
Chromebooks for consumers infographic (March 2014) – PDF
Chromebooks and Chromecast in the Classroom Compares a Core i3 C720 with the recent Samsung Chromebook 2 (ARM) – PDF
Lenovo Thinkpad 11e for eduction – PDF
Lenovo Thinkpad 11e for education Infographic – PDF
Toshiba CB35 for education – PDF
Toshiba CB35 for education infographic – PDF
HP Chromebook 14 in the classroom – PDF
HP Chromebook 14 in the classroom infographic – PDF
Intel Chromebooks in Education (Jan 2014. updated) – PDF
Intel Chromebooks in Education infographic (Jan 2014. updated) – PDF
Chromebooks for small businesses – PDF
Chromebooks for small businesses infographic – PDF
Chromebooks for Enterprise – PDF
Chromebooks for Enterprise Infographic – PDF
Promotional videos – Intel vs ARM Chromebooks.
The first video concentrates on multitasking, the second on smooth video playback. They’re fun and consumer focused but ultimately should steer OEMs to choosing Intel over ARM. The videos could also be interpreted as a push for Chromebooks over other types of laptops. I’m sure that’s not what is intended but if you’re sitting in front of an old Windows PC while watching them you might get that impression.
The embedded below shows the ‘Intel Chromebooks’ playlist. More may be added to this so you might want to save it.
Wow!!! I didn’t remember Intel to be so… err… It doesn’t matter. The fact is that in this head to head “test” (hmm), Intel is comparing the powerful i3 to the slow Exynos 5420. It’s like to compare an old WV Beetle to a Porsche Cayenne!!!! They can be compared because they are vehicles, but they can’t be compared because they are not in the same market segment!!!! It’s frankly stupid from Intel!!! Are they fearing the new x86+ARM APUs to come sooner from AMD (look at the A4-6410T specs)???? Are they fearing the Nvidia Tegra K1 (which is not the full 64 bits one)???? Maybe they are fearing that their new M-core CPU are needing… a fan to be really power efficiency at high frequencies… maybe…
My opinion: They can be compared if the Porsche and VW beetle costs the same.
well at least it seems to confirm – what here had been stated from the beginning – the chromebooks have become serious game in the market, at least in the us where the closed system habitat for schools and institutions together by a broad support by all players involved, google, device manufacturers and third party product vendors have built an affordable ecosystem at the lower cost end. and as already apple has shown, those covering schools and universities soon also will challenge other markets.
ChromeOS, and Android, are areas where ARM and x86 (and possibly others) can compete as opposed to windows where ARM devices are still much less capable due to binary instruction set incompatibilities (although microsoft may have a solution for windows 10 which addresses this). As such, google will continue to support both ARM and x86 if only to prevent Intel from gaining pricing power. ARM will get faster too. For different uses, each may have advantages. For enterprise, the up front cost of a device is far less important that the ongoing costs of security, maintenance and management. Therefore, enterprise is more likely to pay more for a higher end Intel chip if they believe there are productivity gains to be had. On the other hand, education and consumers, especially in poorer areas of the world, will often be looking for the cheapest device and ARM may still be able to hold this advantage.