Google, HP start manufacturing Cromebooks in India

Google in partnership with HP has started manufacturing Chromebooks in India, the PC maker said on Monday.

The Chromebook devices are being manufactured at the Flex Facility near Chennai, where HP has been producing a range of laptops and desktops since August 2020.

"We're partnering with HP to manufacture Chromebooks in India - These are the first Chromebooks to be made in India and will make it easier for Indian students to have access to affordable and secure computing," Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Monday said in a post on X.

An HP spokesperson confirmed that the production of Chromebooks has started in India.

New Chromebooks are available online from a price range starting at Rs 15,990 apiece.

HP is one of the applicants under the government's Rs 17,000 crore production-linked incentive scheme for IT hardware.

Chromebooks come at a lower price compared to notebooks with proprietary operating system.

A joint statement of Google and HP said Chromebooks are leading devices in K-12 education, helping over 50 million students and teachers across the world.

The local production of Chromebooks expands HP's India-made PC portfolio.

HP has been expanding its manufacturing operations in India since 2020, and from December 2021, started manufacturing a wide range of laptops in India, including HP EliteBooks, HP ProBooks, and HP G8 series notebooks.

It has also expanded its portfolio of locally manufactured commercial desktops by adding various models of desktop mini towers (MT), mini desktops (DM), small form factor (SFF) desktops, and a range of All-in-One PCs.