Dorothy

After multiple years of rumors, Google today confirmed a new laptop-focused initiative called Googlebooks. ChromeOS, which launched more than 15 years ago, was built with the thought that most people do everything online now; Google says this new category of laptops is built for a Gemini-first world. The company only gave us a very brief preview of what makes up a Googlebook, with plans to more formally announce more details including hardware later this year.

Almost exactly 15 years since Google introduced Chromebooks and ChromeOS—which ushered a wave of cheap, functional, web-based laptops that would come to dominate the US education market—the company has announced a new laptop platform called Googlebook. It's built around artificial intelligence and Android, and while it isn't replacing Chromebooks, it could give the company a more meaningful foothold in the premium computer market.

Casting an Android phone to a laptop screen can only take you so far. Google’s long-awaited Aluminum operating system, which originally proposed to combine Android and ChromeOS into a whole new product family, may hold new capabilities we haven’t yet seen. Weirdly, Google has not confirmed what OS Googlebooks actually run on, though it sure sounds like Aluminum. Google’s own Keyword blog calls the platform a “modern OS that’s designed for Intelligence” that combines Android and ChromeOS. Googlebooks will inevitably be the most “Google-y” laptop built for those who will never, ever leave Chrome. Whether they’re useful to anybody else remains to be seen.

Google took its first swing at laptops with Chromebooks way back in 2011. These web-first laptops have seen success over the years, mostly in enterprise and education. Google insists Chromebooks aren’t going away, but the company’s focus has shifted to something new: Googlebooks. That’s what Google has decided to call the new line of Android-powered laptops, which will begin shipping later this year.

The brand I most expected to see was absent from Google's announcement. Google just announced a new product line: the Googlebook, marketed as the successor to the Chromebook with more capable hardware and a compelling promise: the merging of Android and ChromeOS into something better.

The bigger story here may be what Googlebooks replaces. The unveiling of Google Books comes 15 years after Google introduced the Chromebook -- the affordable, browser-based laptops that became a fixture in schools and workplaces worldwide. The new Googlebooks will essentially succeed the Chromebook, although the company won't outright say so. A Google spokesperson told TechCrunch in an email that the company plans to continue supporting current Chromebook users, with devices receiving updates through their existing support commitments. The company added that many Chromebooks will also be eligible to transition to the new experience, but didn't share specifics on what this would look like.