Samsung, Acer Chromebooks dropping to $299 this week

Google is making some big changes for the Chromebooks just in time for the holidays that could give these netbooks the boost with consumers that they need.

First, the Goog has revamped the user interface a tad by producing a cleaner login experience and moving the New Tab page items around a bit for the purpose of making it easier to manage apps, bookmarks and most visited sites.

But the biggest and most important change is that Google is slashing the prices on the Chromebooks from Acer and Samsung to $299 each -- a much more reasonable price for one of these simple laptops. Those prices go into effect this week and will likely be permanent beyond the holiday season. (FYI, pricing might not be updated immediately on all websites yet, but they should be via Google channel partners soon.)

On the design front, Samsung is introducing a sleek, black version of its Wi-Fi only Samsung Chromebook Series 5 in the United States.

Sales for the Chromebooks might not have been where Google wanted them to be by now. A big reason was likely that the price tags were originally around $429 to $499, which was a bit ridiculous for a netbook that is basically only a browser and isn't actually that fast when in use. (Surely, these perform better than the average netbook, but that doesn't warrant paying an extra $150 to $200 for one.)

However, Chromebooks have proven to find a niche within the business and education sectors as they do provide a budget-friendly option for companies and schools looking to upgrade to simple systems as cheaply as possible with guaranteed support from Google.

For a closer look at just how easy Google boasts it is to "set up" a Chromebook, check out the very short clip below:

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