Make in India: HP, Google start manufacturing Chromebooks in India

On October 2, HP's supply partner Flex Ltd started assembling Chromebook devices in its factory unit near Chennai in Tamil Nadu.

Last month, the Indian government, in a bid to encourage local manufacturing of large electronics products, put restrictions on imports of laptops, desktops, and tablets.

However, the sudden gag order put several companies in a fix, as it would dampen their sales just before the festive season. They asked for a little more time to comply with compulsory licensing requirements and the government agreed to revoke the restrictions for the time being.

Now, in boost to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Make in India initiative, leading computer-maker Hewlett-Packard(HP) in collaboration with Google announced to build Chromebooks in Tamil Nadu.

Starting on October 2, HP's supply partner Flex Ltd starts assembling Chromebook devices at its plant near Chennai. It should be noted that HP has been assembling a wide range of PCs such as HP EliteBooks, HP ProBooks, and HP G8 series notebooks, and more since August 2020.

It also manufactures commercial computers such as desktop mini towers (MT), mini desktops (DM), small form factor (SFF) desktops, and a range of All-in-One PCs.

All these HP products are offered in both Intel and AMD processor options--to cater to both corporates and general consumers for usage at home.

"HP is committed to advancing digital equity, and we have been driving many initiatives to enable digital education across India. Manufacturing Chromebook laptops in India will allow Indian students to get easy access to affordable PCs. By further expanding our manufacturing operations, we continue to support the Make in India initiative of the Government," Vickram Bedi, Senior Director - Personal Systems, HP India.

"It's good development and we will be seeing more and more OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) start producing laptops in India, reciprocating to the initiatives (Rs 17,000 crore Production Linked Incentive Scheme for IT hardware companies) of the government, to attract manufacturers," Faisal Kawoosa, founder, Founder Techarc, a Technology Analytics, Research & Consulting company said to DH.

"Chromebooks per se, have enormous potential and opportunity in India. Yes, the market is price-sensitive, but at the end of the day, the consumer want to have good user experience. Majority of the new generation of young consumers of smart devices, join through Android ecosystem and if they get an extension in the form of Chromebooks, it makes lot more sense,"Kawoosa added.

"We’re partnering with HP to manufacture Chromebooks in India - These are the first Chromebooks to be made in India and will make it easier for Indian students to have access to affordable and secure computing," Sundar Pichai, CEO, Alphabet Inc (parent company of Google) said on X (formerly Twitter.

Chromebooks are one of the most affordable PCs in the market and they usually come with bare minium hardware with Google's propreitary ChromeOS for computers, similar to Android for phones. They are optimised to work seamlessly be it faster data transfer, quick wireless pairing or continuity of saved half-done work on different compatible devices. For instance, if the user starts a project such as presentation on a phone, he can still be able resume at that very point on Chromebooks with less hassle. It majorly caters to school and college students.

"Make in India initiaitive may also help in reducing the price. Initially, it may not impact the pricing, but it should definitely help making the product closer to the market in terms of understanding local consumers. Also, maybe, going forward the company's R&D work on developing India-centric features in its devices. And, local consumers find it more value in buying the Chromebook than others,"Kawoosa noted.

“At Google, we’ve been working closely with the local education ecosystem, supporting them in their transition to digital-first learning experiences through our products and teacher programs. The local production of Chromebooks with HP marks an important step in our efforts to continue supporting the digital transformation of education in India. We hope this collaboration will help accelerate the adoption of technology in more schools so that every student and educator have access to the tools and skills to pursue their personal potential,” Bani Dhawan, Head of Education - South Asia, Google.

Besides HP, Google also partners with Acer, Asus, and others to offer Chromebooks too.

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