Are you searching for a new computer? Why not consider a Chromebook?
Gone are the days when apps are dependent on the machines running them. Nowadays, it is much easier to do everything on the web by just using a browser. Watch this video to get more info on why you should consider Chromebook for your next computer.
Instead of using the Windows or Mac operating systems, Chromebooks run on the Google Chrome OS platform. Because it runs everything on the cloud, all your work is synced between diferent devices. You can now work on the go without worries even if something happens to your device. Do you think it's time to ditch your old computer?
Let us know if you find this video helpful. Drop a comment below!
To learn more about our Cloud Support Service, or schedule an IT Systems Check, contact itGenius - the Google Workspace Experts
Transcription:
Hi there. It's Pete Moriarty here and today, I want to share with you a profound shift that we've had in the way we approach hardware inside our business. I'm imploring you to consider using a Chromebook or a Chrome device for your next machine and consider rolling them out for your team as well. Now I've been using Chrome devices as my primary devices for over five years now and if you scroll through the archives on our YouTube channel, you'll find a video where I said that I took a $5,000 MacBook pro and actually returned it and switched to a Chromebook. At the time, the Chromebook that I had purchased was $900 and I was getting much more value out of that as a business owner instead of the Macbook pro that was five times the cost. Now at the time, that video got a lot of views, made a lot of waves and for the last five years, I've still stuck with all of my Chrome devices.
I stuck with, originally, an Asus machine and then I moved up to a Google Pixel Book and on each one of my business computers, I've been using a Chrome box. Now these devices are very different to using a Mac or a PC. You can still use everything in the browser and you can still print and fax and do all the other things that you need to do, but they don't run the same operating system. And where the experience of working on a windows machine or a Mac is a very desktop based experience, you're installing apps locally, using a Chrome device is really an experience of the web. It's the most pure experience of the web, I would say because there isn't really anything else. You've got all the basics of connectivity like Bluetooth and wifi, and the ability to plug in a USB stick and watch movies from your machine. But you don't really have all of the other stuff that comes with a fully fledged desktop operating system and that's the big shift with Chrome devices.
When we're doing most of our work in the web, we're using Canva for our pictures, we're using Gmail for our email, we're using Google documents and Drive for all of our documents, what's the point in installing apps locally anymore if you're the kind of business who's grown and now is using Google Docs and G Suite for everything in the business, why would you still use a desktop operating system that requires maintenance and support and antivirus and updates and all the other bits and pieces that bog down those machines? So let's take a deeper dive into why consider using a Chrome device and why they've worked out so well for me. Now, Chrome devices are Google's devices built for the modern age. There've been a complete rethink about what a modern machine and a modern worker needs. Now, they haven't really been super popular in a business sense because the main market for Chromebooks and Chrome boxes has been education.
And they've been in thousands of schools all over the world, Chromebooks now outsell any other devices in schools in America, which is a really big shift. Now, Chromebooks are also phenomenal in the workplace because they're centrally managed, they're great value devices, they last for a long time, there's no viruses or malware, they've got extra long life and the list goes on and on and on. The best thing is they connect really well to the Google ecosystem. So if you're a business that's using G Suite, you're crazy if you don't consider using a Chromebook for your hardware devices. Now, the early Chromebooks weren't great on the performance side of things and that's why they got a bad rap. Part of that reason is because they were initially aimed at school children. They were ultra low cost, around $2 or $300 a piece and that meant that the processes were pretty low.
And so, if you're a business manager or leader, getting work done on these machines wasn't really ideal. If you had more than five tabs open at a time, it would start to really slow down. But thankfully in the last five years there's been a number of machines and manufacturers who've got really serious about creating machines suitable for business users. The Chrome Box that I'm currently using has an i7 Intel processor and 16 gig of Ram, that is ample power processing to run multiple screens, multiple applications at once and if I wanted to have 15 tabs open, it would handle that without a problem. But hardware wise, some of the Chromebooks are still considered “underpowered” and what that means is they don't have the same fancy processes that a more modern or more beefier macro PC would and that's because they're used for different things.
A modern macro PC might be used for editing videos, playing games, the kinds of things that we don't really need in a business sense. For most business so owners or business executives were replying to emails, we're working on some documents, we're maybe doing a few video meetings, but we don't need hardcore processing power. Most of the things we're doing are on the Cloud and that means that the heavy lifting is being done by remote supercomputers, it doesn't have to be done on a local desktop machine. So we're rethinking how these computers work means that they've been tuned for longevity, they've been tuned for longer battery life, they've been tuned for different exciting form factors like flip screens and touch screens and styluses. And what that means is the machines work really well when paired with Android devices or paired with an online G Suite account, it's a different way of working to the “creative” who maybe needs a MacBook Pro and Adobe Photoshop to work on their photos and produce what they're looking to do.
Now, if you are that type of person, if you're a creative who needs to actually produce content, heavy lifting creative content on your desktop machine and you can't get away with using something online like Canva, well then maybe a Chromebook is not for you, but for most business managers and executives and for most business workers, particularly information workers, they're a great choice. Can you open a PDF? Yes. Can you access your files? Yes. Can you install a USB stick and watch movies? Yes. Can you access Bluetooth headset? Yes. Can you print? Yes. All of these things are built into Chromebooks and they are all fuss free. Google users open protocols for things like printing and USB storage, so it means that no matter if you've got a USB device that was previously plugged into a PC or a Mac, or no matter what printer you've got, as long as it was made in the last five years, it's probably going to work just fine on your Chromebook.
And there is less IT support needed. What we love is businesses that can run without having to “call the IT guy” every five minutes just to get their work done and Chromebooks really deliver on that. Now the downside is, is what if you want to run some software like a Mac or PC application, right? You need to install it on a desktop, you just can't do that with a Chromebook. You're stuck with what you can access on the web, you're stuck with what you can access via a remote desktop to a windows server, so if you need to deliver an app to a Chromebook, you may choose to do it via a remote server, but Google has got some tricks up their sleeve. At the time of recording this video, Google has actually announced that they will soon be allowing windows applications to run natively on the Chromebook via an emulator.
And that's exciting news because many organizations have just that one legacy app that's hanging around, but they've not yet been able to port to the web, and this is going to open up that door for Chrome devices. But for the most part, let's be real. Chromebooks are designed for work that's done online and now that most of our work is done online, if that's your business, Chromebooks are going to be a great choice for you. Something that's important to mention is Google has no known viruses, malware exploits for the Chromebooks. They are all encrypted on a per user basis and there's even hardware chips inside them, which verify the operating system every single time you open the computer. And what that means is your machine is secure, there is so, so little risk of anything going wrong, whereas on a Windows or a Mac you've got to worry about antivirus and anti-malware and crypto lockers, which can encrypt your whole hard drive.
These risks just don't exist in the wild, in the Google ecosystem. Now from time to time, there have been security vulnerabilities and exploits with the Google system, but they pale in comparison to the amount of viruses and malware that are out there and active in the Windows and the Mac worlds. Chrome devices are just more secure, it is a fact, and that is based on the number of actual vulnerabilities that have been released, which is pretty darn close to zero. They are extremely secure machines and you are backed by Google's team of amazing security engineers who are always working to keep this secure and everything locked down to your Google account, which is much more secure than your file stored on a local device. Now, the thing that business owners often ask me is “Well Pete, I like to keep a million tabs open, does it actually work for me?”
And I can say with confidence to you that if you're the kind of person who likes to have more than 15 tabs open, one of the more pricier and more premium Chromebooks will work absolutely fine for you. For most workers though, having 5 or a maximum of 10 tabs is plenty, and they can go for something around the middle of the range. Now talking in Australian dollars, a Chromebook under $1,000 is going to be pretty suitable for any standard knowledge worker, for a power user or a business owner who likes to go that a little bit further, you might budget up to $1,500 or maybe a little bit more for something that's a little more premium. There's a range of different form factors and ways of working with different devices and different form factors give you flexibility in how you'd like to work.
Some of the best features of working with Chrome devices, particularly the portable ones is that they're low cost relative to their counterparts, they have insane battery life, I've already talked about the security and well, because you've got the Chrome OS, everything is connected and synchronized to your Google account so you're never at risk of losing data if you happen to lose the machine. So my recommendation, try one. If you're in charge of the IT strategy for your business, maybe you're a business owner, or maybe you're an IT leader within your organization, buy one Chromebook and give it a go. Test it out, see how you like it, do the Chromebook challenge for a week. See if you can last without your primary machine using the Chrome machine for your primary device. I'm sure you'll be surprised at what you can get done using Chrome OS.
Now, if you're interested in getting more resources in the Chrome ecosystem, or if you'd like to chat to our team for a consultation around your business technology strategy, as you scale and grow the business and help your team have more uniform IT policy as you grow the business, jump onto our link down below there. You can chat to our team and schedule a no risk completely free and complimentary consultation, or if you're a small business and you're just getting started, you're not yet ready to jump onto a consult with us, you can join our free G Suite community. Inside there are business owners, exclusive resources, live videos, and plenty of help from our team and others in the Google community. If you like this video, please give us a thumbs up, drop a comment below with any questions that you have, and we'll catch them as soon as we can. We'll see you in the next one.
To learn more about our Cloud Support Service, or schedule an IT Systems Check, contact itGenius - the Google Workspace Experts
