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Google Breaks into Enterprise Market with Dell Chromebook

Google and Dell officials say the Chromebook can solve many typical workplace problems with its streamlined installation time, universal management tools and improved app compatibility.

(TNS) -- Google is gunning for the corporate market with a Dell Chromebook 13 laptop, meant to appeal to office workers and information technology employees alike. “Chromebooks are now ready for work,” Rajen Sheth, Chrome for Work project management director, said Thursday at the product’s introduction.

Due to its low price, the Chromebook has dominated the education industry — leading in U.S. sales last year. But Chromebooks have failed to win over business customers, who mostly use Microsoft Windows.

With computers as cheap as $150, Chromebooks have been popular with schools due simply to the incredibly low prices, said local analyst Rob Enderle. The Dell business version will start at $399.

Google hopes its partnership with Dell “can make the Chrome product work for business,” he said.

Because the upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 10 has proved to be so challenging, Enderle said, and because competing Apple products are so expensive, Google can exploit a gap in the market — but it will take time before companies trust the products.

“A lot of shops won’t want to be the canary in the coal mine,” he said.

A few of America’s big businesses, however, are willing to make the jump. Starbucks, Netflix, Big Lots and Sanmina will use the new Chromebook.

Google and Dell officials say the Chromebook can solve many typical workplace problems with its streamlined installation time, universal management tools, improved app compatibility, increased security, and printing and file options that make the system easy to incorporate into a company’s IT.

While people used to work primarily on a laptop, the average worker is now using four devices a day, Sheth said. The Chromebook allows users to easily access apps and data from all those devices, he said.

©2015 the San Francisco Chronicle. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.