In an attempt to put laptops running its Chrome OS at the top of holiday gift lists this year, Google announced that it plans to offer new Chromebook buyers a free terabyte of Google Drive storage for two years.
Anyone who buys a Chromebook will be eligible to redeem the offer for free storage (which is worth $240) between now and the end of this year. It’s an attempt to capitalize on those people who are going to pick up a cheap computer over the holidays, and boost sales of the Chromebooks just in time for the end of Google’s fourth quarter.
It’s a move that could sway the balance of power in holiday purchasing towards the low-cost laptops and away from other options like cheap Windows PCs and tablets. Last year, the low-cost portables topped Amazon’s holiday sales charts, passing by Windows and Apple laptops. Chromebooks have been gaining traction in the market, especially in the world of education, which has been very welcoming to Google’s new operating system.
The devices have become much more useful in the past year, picking up key features like the ability to run Android apps, as well as support for Adobe Photoshop (with the promise of more Creative Cloud software in the future).
