Given that they still support updates for the CR-48 – which was a consumer only model – and are still updating the earliest Samsung and Acer Chromebooks, it looks like this policy has more to do with how Google provides technical support to its Enterprise and Education customers as part of the acquisition package, as these products are sold in a different way to schools and businesses than to the consumer, i.e. they include support for 3 years (http://goo.gl/GIZcXk). Given that the costs of providing technical support to older devices (like cars) increase with age, it’s not surprising that Google wants to limit how long it provides support to devices in the rough and tumble world of schools and businesses.

I don’t know about any one else but I find it difficult to fathem how long a Chromebook has left of its 5 years of life. How can you find out a Chromebooks official lunch date and why don’t Google publish these official lunch dates so we can see when a Chromebooks 5 years of updates will end. For eample Toshiba CB2 has been out for over 6 months so why can we not be told its end of life date? Another thing whilst I’m having a moan. It may look a good deal when a Chromebook has £40 off but if it has lost over a year of its life and it originally cost £250 it isn’t cheaper than if you brought it when it was first released but more expensive going on cost per year. As end of life policy relates to each individual Chromebook I think the launch date of each model should be shown at the point of sale so we can see how long left it has before the Google updates are likely to end. What do you all think our there?