Chromebook Churn – that’s the new report from the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG) Education Fund.
The report, an analysis of the Chromebook market in the wake of its extreme growth in popularity at the beginning of the pandemic, notes that these devices are manufactured to be inexpensive, which means that when they fall apart, they tend to do so in a non-repairable fashion, creating 9 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions during the first year of the pandemic alone. By extending the life of the devices, the organization states, it could not only save emissions, but it could also save taxpayers $1.8 billion by cutting down on the need for replacements.
Chromebooks, the report argues, come with hidden costs that aren’t highlighted by the price tag. For one: Finding replacement parts can be challenging, even between two similar designs.
U.S. PIRG recommends that Google take steps to resolve these issues by increasing the length of its automatic updates to 10 years and putting pressure on manufacturers to improve access to standardization and common hardware.
Why do we care?
Perhaps today’s theme is data counterpoints. This report is helpful for those managing and maintaining Chromebooks to give some insight into the total cost of ownership, which is the real metric to work with customers on regarding technology investments. TCO is an essential lens for customer planning and budgeting and ideally is incorporated into technology planning. If you’d asked me without data, my guess on the TCO of a Chromebook, I’d have likely missed this detail.