Well Google certainly thinks so. At Google I/O 2011 they announced they are partnering with Samsung and Acer for the hardware and will be releasing 2 Chromebooks on June 15th across the US, UK and other major European markets.
Here's what we know: Early this summer, Samsung and Acer will start selling different versions of the Chromebook. Samsung's will retail for $429 for a WiFi-only model and $499 for a version with a 3G radio, while Acer’s WiFi-only Chromebook will retail for $349. Those prices are suited for the consumer market, but Google is also going after business and educational sectors by selling 3-year subscriptions - $28 per business user, and $20 per educational user.
This model of Hardware as a service, as it includes support, replacements and admin / management tools has been tried before but Googles slimmed down OS and the promise of reduced skills and costs in the workplace could make this a real gamechanger.
A business will pay Google $1008 for a Chromebook over 3 years and will receive new hardware on renewal, or if lost, broken or dropped in a river (see video). This is less than a third of the industry TCO for a Windows based PC!
Along with other announcements such as GoogleTV improvements, Android@Home and a raft of other Android OS enhancements they are going all out to break into other sectors.
Here's their take on the Chromebook
The Google I/O demo showed off some core web based functionality, file handling etc and even simple web based CAD tools. For many organisations these Chromebooks will be 'Good Enough' for large percentages of their employees, especially when many enterprises and even SME's run more and more significant portions of their line of business applications on the web.
UPDATE: 25/5 - Citrix and Google have announced the availability of Citrix Receiver for Chromebooks that will allow business to securely run any enterprise app on ChromeOS. More here
UPDATE 2: 9/8 - I just snagged myself a Chromebook...and am loving it. More here
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