HP’s latest addition to its Chromebook lineup seems to be in the process of disappearing without a trace.
The Chromebook 11, which is supposed to be the latest in the company’s line of laptops that run Google’s Chrome OS, has suddenly disappeared from retail outlets everywhere. The computer’s product page has completely disappeared from Amazon.com, and Google seems to be trying to hide any trace of it on the company’s Chromebook site. Even searching for “chromebook 11” on HP’s own shopping site returns no results. According to a report by The Verge, Best Buy staff are being told to take all of the Chromebooks currently in inventory off the shelves.
The sudden disappearance would seem to point to only one thing: there’s something really, really wrong with the Chromebook 11. It’s the beginning of holiday shopping season, and HP’s petite laptop would seem like an ideal gift. While reviews of the Chromebook 11 complained about the laptop’s relatively small battery life, it didn’t catch fire, smell like urine, or seem seriously problematic in any other way.
HP released the low-cost laptop early last month, as a part of a strategy to diversify its laptop offerings away from Windows. But for some unknown reason, HP has decided that the Chromebook 11 needs to disappear.
We’ve reached out to HP and Google for comment, and will update the post when we hear back.
UPDATE: Google and HP have released a joint statement about the removal, saying that the sudden disappearance of the Chromebook 11 was due to reports of chargers overheating.
Google and HP are pausing sales of the HP Chromebook 11 after receiving a small number of user reports that some chargers included with the device have been damaged due to overheating during use. We are working with the Consumer Product Safety Commission to identify the appropriate corrective action, and will provide additional information and instructions as soon as we can.
In the meantime, customers who have purchased an HP Chromebook 11 should not use the original charger provided with the product. In the interim they may continue using their HP Chromebook 11 with any other Underwriters Laboratories-listed micro-USB charger, for example one provided with a tablet or smartphone. We apologize for the inconvenience.
