Need a laptop for a few days and don’t mind one that runs Chrome OS? Google’s going to be loaning Chromebooks to students on college campuses through a new Chromebook Lending Library program.
The Lending Libraries will pop up at 12 college campuses this fall, and students will be able to sign up to borrow a Chromebook for up to 4 days… because that’s how long the library will stick around at each school.
If you haven’t returned the Chromebook by the time the Lending Library packs up and leaves, you’ll be billed for it.
While Google is playing up the strengths of Chromebooks for college students (ease of use, long battery life, cloud storage which means you won’t lose your assignment if you lose your laptop, and collaborative Google Docs features), this is clearly more of a promotional stunt to let students try out Chromebooks than a way to actually let people check out Chromebooks any time they need a laptop.
The Chromebook Lending Library isn’t a permanent fixture and will only be around for a few days. Still… if you happen to find yourself needing a laptop during those days, it could come in handy.
Yes, I want to hand you my personal details so you can monitor me.
Yup. Get’em while they’re young, and you get’em for life. I still use the same brand of toothpaste I used when I was a kid, and I still have an account at the same bank I opened my first account at when I went off to college, many moons ago. Companies know how much the habits and inertia of their customers mean to them, if only they can win them over in the first place.
And the thing is, Google probably doesn’t care if people know it’s a promotional stunt. It’ll still work.
I took my parents to the Texas coast a number of years back, not knowing that it was the height of Spring Break season (hey, I’m English, we never had such a thing when I was a student). After being advised by the staff at a beach-front hotel that it might not be the quietest place to stay that night, we found a motel a couple of miles inland to stay at. When I walked into my room, both beds had two large goodie bags filled with toiletries and other stuff (including condoms. of course) provided by one of America’s mega-corporations. There were probably a dozen different branded items in each bag, and even if only one spring breaker in each room started using one of them branded items on a regular basis, it paid for itself many times over.
This is how credit card companies hook Americans, too — get them while they are young and away from home at college.