Is a Chromebook all you need?

You have to hand it to Google: Its little hobbies sometimes have a way of taking off.

Five years ago, Google created a lightweight computer operating system, Chrome OS, that behaved like a Web browser.

The search king also persuaded a short list of computer makers to use the new operating system in inexpensive and easy-to-use laptops - Chromebooks.

At the time, critics scoffed that the lightweight machines were more toys than computers.

But no one is laughing now. Chromebooks have improved significantly, and it might be time to seriously consider one as a second computer, a child’s laptop or a portable device that is more than a smartphone or tablet and - with a price usually between $200 (Rs 11,670) and $350 (Rs 20,423) - something you can take on trips without worrying that your expensive device will be stolen.

Chromebooks are mounting a challenge against computers that run on Microsoft’s Windows and are outpacing Apple laptops in schools, where Apple products have always been popular.

According to the market research company NPD, up to 25 percent of all the low-cost laptops sold in the United States are Chromebooks.

Chromebooks have overtaken Apple’s MacBooks for No. 2 in laptop sales. Google said they had been deployed in nearly 10,000 schools in the United States.

Besides market share, Microsoft and Apple have reason to fear the Chromebook because every new user (except for students using a school account) automatically becomes a Google customer.

That’s because you must have a Google account to do anything other than try out a Chromebook.

And it’s a good bet you will be using a lot of Google services once you are signed in.

You get 100 gigabytes of storage just for buying a device, and Gmail, Picasa and even Google Plus and Hangouts (for chat and videoconferencing) are front and center, as is the Google Play store.

That’s a shift from the way computers have operated in the past, and Microsoft and Apple can only wish they had this level of required integration.

Windows 8 nags you to create a Microsoft account much more than previous versions did, but it’s not required and you can still use whatever services and software you like.

Similarly, Apple will encourage you regularly to sign up for an Apple ID to register your computer and get tech support, but you can still use the computer and all its basic functions without one.

It’s not a bad thing to use Google services on a Chromebook. Gmail, Google Docs and Picasa are great. And you can easily find third-party Web apps like Microsoft Office Online, Spotify and any website like Flickr for photos or some other Web mail option.

But ultimately, Chrome OS is meant to do with computers what Android did for phones: Turn device shoppers into Google users by providing a cheap operating system on various types of hardware.

It is hard to imagine how Chrome OS will be as widespread as Android, but its future is looking much brighter than it did just a couple of years ago.

The first Chromebook, built by Samsung, appeared in 2011, a little under two years after Google announced it would create the operating system.

“Dead on arrival” is how a Google spokeswoman described tech press headlines when the Samsung Chromebook made its debut.

It was interesting but wildly impractical for the real world, as Google projects tend to be.

The browser-style interface was confounding; It opened as one big tab, which couldn’t be minimised or moved.

There were no windows, no real menus, no desktop, nothing to make people feel as if they were using an interface they understood.

There was no storage for digital photos or music files.

Software couldn’t be installed on it, and the collection of apps available for the machines was slightly laughable.

Worse, there was no offline access to anything.

The expectation was that people would live in the cloud, storing email, photos, contacts and documents on Google servers, and be free, finally free, of antiquated concepts like “storage” and “files” and “printing.”

The world was emphatically not ready to live in the cloud in 2011.

But Google has nothing if not time and money.

It plucked away at Chrome OS updates like providing offline access to documents (we’re still not totally ready to live in the cloud) and devising an interface redesign that lets you create multiple browser windows and open apps from something like a Start menu.

And the prices stayed low. I bought an Acer C720 Chromebook last week for $199 (Rs 11,612.).

It definitely feels like a $199 piece of equipment, with a slightly junky trackpad, ugly side grilles and slightly-too-heavy-for-its-size clunkiness.

But I plan to take it on vacation without concern, since it fits in a purse and all I need is Wi-Fi.

If you are already a Chrome, Gmail and Docs user, firing up a Chromebook is a startling delight. Simply log in to your existing Google account, go online and the machine is yours.

Every bookmark, your search history, your stored documents, all your mail and all your contacts are at the ready in seconds.

That’s the promise of the so-called computing cloud the machine relies on, and when it works, it really works.

That’s not to say there are not trade-offs. The interface still takes a bit of getting used to and things like printing still require some searching for tech support (something about Cloud Print that I just haven’t bothered with, to be honest).

And I could not find the game Minecraft in the Web apps, which is a problem for today’s children.

And ultracheap hardware is, well, cheap. You will not get premium fit and finish at those prices.

However, Google and Intel this month announced some 20 new Chromebook devices coming in the next few months, from makers including Asus, Lenovo, Toshiba and Acer.

The Lenovo N20p in particular looks intriguing, with a touch screen and a flexible hinge that lets you bend back the lid 300 degrees and stand the laptop up like a little touch-screen kiosk (great for use in the kitchen, for example).

That one will cost $329 (Rs 19,197). Stephen Baker, a vice president for industry analysis at NPD, said he expected Chromebook prices to inch up in the coming months, as manufacturers try to make a little more profit off increasingly popular devices.

Chromebooks are carving out a niche in schools and with business travellers. Can they get beyond that? Don’t bet against this little Google project.