Google just launched artillery deep into territories held by Microsoft and Apple by making one of the biggest announcements in its history: The reveal of Chrome OS. And in doing so, it has declared war on the traditional desktop model. 
 
 The Cr-48 Chrome Notebook will be the first official device featuring Chrome OS. Although it's only being released in a pilot program to beta testers, it's very much an emissary to consumers (Google's hopeful allies in the fight). Those of you interested in enlisting can sign up to test the device, but we're guessing selection will be — well — selective. 
 
 Not much is known about the hardware driving Google's new machine, but here is what we do know: 
 
 12-inch LCD display 
 
 Built-in Wi-Fi and 3G (service provided by Verizon Wireless) 
 
 Full-sized keyboard with no caps-lock or function keys 
 
 Oversized clickable touchpad 
 
 Weighs in at 3.8 pounds 
 
 Solid state hard drive — capacity unknown 
 
 Eight hours of active usage with a week of standby power 
 
 The Cr-48 Chrome Notebook might not be the most powerful computing device, but that's not the point. The device is intended for consumption, not raw processing power. Whether it performs as a consumption device remains to be seen, but if Google gets this right, Chrome OS notebooks could put a serious hurt on devices like the MacBook Air. ||||| What is Google thinking? Comparing the Chromebook Pixel laptop with a 13" MacBook Air is just insane, if not plain stupid and misleading. 
 
 Yes, the latest 12.85" Chromebook is thin (0.64" vs. 0.68"), has an aluminum body and a backlit keyboard. But that's pretty much where the resemblance ends. Despite a touchscreen, the Google laptop is still "just" a thin client capable of running Web applications through the Chrome web browser. 
 
 A Ripoff! 
 
 But at $1,300, the Chromebook Pixel is simply put, a ripoff! The 32 GB Chromebook Pixel is actually $100 more expensive than the 128 GB version of the 13" MacBook Air and just $200 short of a MacBook Pro with a Retina display. And I thought Apple was on the expensive side of the laptop market! Perhaps Google execs thought it was actually a deal, considering the 1 terabyte of online storage included for 3-years with the device and worth $1,800! 
 
 Seriously, Google's "premium" Chromebook is not even a real computer. Any Mac or Windows laptops are an order of magnitude more capable than the Chromebook Pixel i.e. web browsing, plus run locally thousands of native applications available for Mac or Windows. 
 
 So who is Google really targeting with Pixel? That's a tough question, because nobody in their right mind should spend that kind of money on a laptop - which isn't really one - that does so little. But don't get me wrong. I really like the concept of an inexpensive, instant-on web browser that updates itself automatically like the $199 Acer C7 Chromebook. But I'm flabbergasted to see that Google spent precious engineering talent and resources to come out with something that is simply "out of touch" from the reality of the market. 
 
 [Update] 
 
 I'm reposting below some of my favorite comments on this story. 
 
 Dean Olds: 
 
 $1299 Chromebook? No redesign of UI to truley support a touch device? No websites to support the crazy high DPI? 5 Hour Battery? 4G LTE Connection, but still only 100mb included? Do you not understand why us faithful spend our money with you and not Apple? Because you innovate at a lower price. The Samsung Arm was your first success because of its value. I wanted this Pixel bad, until today. The only reason you announced it in a small media only event versus I/O is so you wouldn’t have to handle 5000 irate Google fans rushing the stage demanding answers to this crazy inflated pricing. 
 
 Harry Callahan: 
 
 It’s pretty easy. Buy the Chromebook pixel, and install Linux on it. You won’t be able to find any other laptop with such a high-res screen anytime soon. especially at that price. People who install Linux don’t care what software comes with the machine since they’ll be reinstalling the operating system anyway. It’s a narrow market to be sure, but not entirely zero. 
 
 Sam Wagner: 
 
 This offering is a joke when compared to the 13″ macbook air, let’s not even mention the surface pro. The only way chrome book will ever have an advantage is if they’re cheaper an offer a better user experience than standard Mac or PC computers. At this point google has shown nothing to prove these computers are better than competitors. I fact, with the new office I have ever more reason to stay with microsoft. For a minimal fee, I get 5 copies of office, 60 minutes a month on skype a month and an extra 20 gigabytes of storage on skydrive storage Combined with office online this makes is hard to even consider a chromebook. If google docs was a real competitor to MS Office I would consider it. Until then I’ll stick with a non google laptop. 
 
 Chris Anderson: 
 
 It’s a shame that it’s not actually April 1st….. I guess this goes to show that Google really does just have its photocopiers on, except that they are just clueless enough to think that this somehow approximates a MacBook Air/Pro. 
 
 Javier Rodriguez: 
 
 If you can dual boot with windows 8 or linux then it’s a decent value. 
 
 Metu: 
 
 the new samsung and acer chromebooks show there is a market for these things. lots and lots and lots of people do nothing more than facebook/email/amazon/netflix/ebay. why pay for all that “more” the nerdbois will go on and on and on about (ad nauseam) when you’ll never use it? but this? no. 
 
 Nicholas Hobbs: 
 
 What Mr. Jean-Baptiste (and many other people commenting on this technology) seem to not understand is that technology changes and improves rapidly in 2013. In the last 5 years the web has evolved incredibly quickly, and still has a very long way to go. Google has made a point of making the chromebook widely available, which will help them to build a wide customer base as the technology evolves. In five years the web will be able to do almost everything that you can now do on your PC. Once this is the case, high resolution touchscreen technology will greatly improve the interface and experience of these devices. Google is far ahead of the game in this way. 
 
 Chris Bordeman: 
 
 With a miniscule 32GB disk space (less OS!), the price is even more baffling. The Surface Pro is cheaper, with a much larger 128GB SSD drive. And it can not only run the Chrome browser easily, it can run every other program ever made, and even some games at low detail. And there are lots of ultrabooks out there that are well under $1,000 with much better specs. With such a tiny SSD drive, even installing other OSes isn’t an option! What a rip off! 
 
 Hal Smith:
– Google is giving out free laptops—but good luck getting one. The search giant unveiled its new Chrome OS yesterday, but announced that the public wouldn’t be able to buy netbooks sporting it until the middle of next year, eWeek reports. But in the meantime, Google is running a pilot program to test the OS, giving participants a shiny new ultraportable that Mashable thinks has the potential to “put a serious hurt on devices like the MacBook Air.” The boxy black notebook, dubbed the Cr-48, doesn’t look like much, because it’s not intended for consumer release. But it weighs in at just 3.8 pounds, and Google boasts that it gets 8 hours of battery life, boots up in 10 seconds and runs cool. It also has no spinning disks, caps-lock key, or function keys. But Google will be picky about who gets one, and warns that given the bugs still lurking in the beta OS, “the pilot program is not for the faint of heart.”