Google offers Chromebooks to businesses, schools starting at $20 per month

Google has been busy announcing its latest computing innovation, the Chromebook. Available to consumers by way of Samsung and Acer, Google has also announced that businesses, governments and schools in seven countries will be able to take advantage of these notebooks for a flat fee each month.

With corporate environments struggling to update numerous versions of Windows, Google received 50,000 applications from companies to test the CR-48 series of Chromebooks, with a few hundred getting the opportunity.

The city of Orlando also piloted Chrome OS to help the search giant develop a competitive platform for institutions with many staff, members and pupils.

Rolling out on June 15, Google will allow businesses, governments and schools to apply for what it called the Chrome Box. With the device being only part of the cost, the search giant will also provide a web console for IT administrators to remotely manage and update all of the Chromebooks within their offices.

They will also receive support, warranty and replacements, even upgrading the devices when the hardware lifecycle is over, a perfect solution for companies that cannot afford to update their devices as often as they really should.

For businesses, the hardware and service package will cost $28 per user per month. For schools and other education establishments, the price is $20. To apply, all that is needed is to visit the google.com/chromebook and apply via Google’s sales links.