After previously teasing a fall timeframe, Google is set to open pre-orders for Googlebooks on Monday, September 21.
Top comment by CajunMoses
The Googlebook is strategically essential for Google regardless of whether it's just a "me too" device. The reason is simple: Google has a near-monopoly on the devices used by grade-schoolers. But, as soon as they leave grade school and go off to college and careers, they "graduate" to either MS Windows or Apple MacOS. All those years of indoctrination is simply ceded to the competition simply because most young people will need/want a device that comes ready to install application packages for serious, heavy-duty real-world computer use. So, the Chromebook gets tossed in the ash heap. And that's the last of Google on the desktop. One day maybe, every imaginable application will be a Web app and a Chromebook-like device will be all that anyone needs or uses. But not anytime in the foreseeable future.
The email blast to users who signed up for updates on the Android-based platform went out this morning. On September 21 at 9 a.m. ET, you’ll be able to pre-order the first Googlebook devices.
You can expect devices from Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, and Lenovo, with several leaking in recent weeks. By that date, Google will presumably detail the full operating system, including sharing what the actual name is. In May, we only got a preview.
Today’s teaser highlights the Magic Pointer that allows you to access Gemini immediately. This animation transforms into the light bar that all Googlebooks are expected to feature as their marquee branding element. Google has yet to share what exactly it will do. Compared to Chromebooks, this will be the primary brand on the cover. “Googlebooks” only appears on the left palm rest just below the keyboard.
It’s not clear what the gap between pre-orders and device shipments will be, but launching before the holiday shopping season seems likely.
More on Googlebooks:
- ‘Lenovo Googlebook 15’ specs leak in full with ‘Google facial authentication’
- ‘Look up’ app for Googlebooks appears on Play Store, currently works on phones
- Here’s the first Asus Googlebook as the floodgates start to open
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