Ottawa-based Innie Hap has been selling used Chromebooks that schools don’t want on Facebook Marketplace for as little as $70 each, down almost three-quarters from the original price. Others sell them for just $15.
Until yesterday, those cheap Chromebooks came with a catch: the laptops’ software updates had expired, meaning their lifespan had technically come to an end.
Google announced Thursday that Chromebooks from the 2021 model year onwards will automatically receive 10 years of updates, and select models from before 2021 can opt in to receive the extended support.
Talking Points
- Prompted by the pandemic-driven shift to remote learning, in recent years Canadian school boards have spent millions of dollars on Chromebooks—simple, lower-cost laptops that run Google’s ChromeOS
- Unlike other operating systems, Google had set expiration dates for ChromeOS that it announced would be extended for another 10 years
It’s a significant development for schools across Canada that rushed to buy hundreds of thousands of Chromebooks at the COVID-19 pandemic’s onset for at-home learning. Within a few years, many of those devices would’ve been rendered almost useless without the updates that Google is now promising.
The devices became big business during the pandemic. Chromebook sales to the Canadian education market grew from about 379,000 units in 2019 to 668,000 in 2020, according to analytics firm IDC’s worldwide quarterly PC tracker. Last year, nearly 70 per cent of all educational devices sold in Canada were Chromebooks.
Google isn’t the only firm that’s targeted the education market as a major customer. That playbook was important in Apple’s early days, when it began selling computers to Minnesota public schools in 1978 and then helped pioneer elementary classrooms’ adoption of computers in the 1980s with the Macintosh’s graphical interface.
While there are some Windows laptops and iPads geared toward the education sector, Chromebooks don’t have any competitors at the same price point that offer the same reliability with a keyboard. “Chromebooks are pretty much the de facto,” said Marc Saltzman, a Toronto-area consumer-electronics journalist.
For example, the Toronto District School Board committed to buying 136,000 Chromebooks for $41.75 million in 2021, and Nova Scotia’s education ministry spent $21.5 million for up to 32,000 in late 2020.
Until yesterday, however, software support for Chromebooks typically lasted five years, meaning many pandemic-era devices were destined for the trash heap beginning in 2024. Unlike operating systems like Microsoft’s Windows XP, which received support for over a decade, Chromebooks’ software comes with an expiry date imposed by Google—leaving many schools with e-waste.
Google’s extension will give these devices a new lease on life. Even earlier versions, sold before 2021, will now have the option to extend automatic updates to 10 years from the platform’s release.
“Will we replace every single Chromebook next year that was purchased for in-home learning during the pandemic? Likely not.”
“All Chromebook platforms will get regular automatic updates for 10 years—more than any other operating system commits to today,” read its release.
In May 2020, the Winnipeg School Division, one of six in the Manitoba capital, announced it would provide 2,766 Chromebooks and iPads to students. The choice came down to price and availability during supply-chain disruptions, said Lindsay Moisey, the division’s manager of information systems. “We went with what we could get, and with the funds that have been allocated.”
Similarly, Quebec and Nova Scotia’s ministries of education have over 193,000 and 125,000 Chromebooks, respectively, at their schools. Quebec Ministry of Education media relations officer Esther Chouinard cited the Chromebook’s low price as a major factor for its choice following a call for tenders. Meanwhile, Nova Scotia government spokesperson Jenna MacQueen said in an email that cost effectiveness, durability and integration with the Google Classroom platform—which helps teachers create digital assignments, teach remotely and provide real-time feedback—were primary reasons for choosing the devices.
Even without ChromeOS updates, Chromebooks would still function as a basic web browser and word processor for educational needs. “For students who don’t need it as anything more than just a device for taking notes, doing their research online and cranking out a report or an essay, it should work well past four or five years if you take care of it,” said Saltzman.
For now, it’s unclear what might happen to Winnipeg’s Chromebooks next year as the school division’s technology budget hasn’t been released yet, said Moisey prior to Google’s announcement. “Will we replace every single Chromebook next year that was purchased for in-home learning during the pandemic? Likely not.”
Prior to the extended software updates, school technicians could only extend the service life of a Chromebook by using third-party updates, said Saltzman. But the 10-year guarantee “will outlast the laptops themselves, so kudos to Google for doing this,” he said. “It gives users the peace of mind knowing their data will be protected for the life of the hardware.”
