Chrome, the operating system not the decoration for your car, is evidently now ready for prime time. Google has announced hardware is now available (watch the first video). It appears that the school market is one target with a price, lease I guess, of $20 per month. I interpret this to mean schools might pay $720 for a device they can trade in every three years.
Who wins and who loses if this goes big time? I suppose the losers would be software companies who cannot migrate their products to the web.
Here is an early offering from Samsung – $429 for the wifi version.
I think the hidden cost is the cell connection. When everything is on the web, how well will you be able to get by with wifi and what will a truly unlimited data plan cost?
P.S. – Here is an analysis of the potential of Chrome devices in school from ReadWriteWeb.