Google is set to distribute 27,000 Chromebook machines to US schools across 41 states, as the internet giant looks to take on Apple in the lucrative education market.
The move will help raise awareness of the devices and prepare the market base for when Google thinks it can try to compete with Wintel slates and notebooks.
Chromebooks are mobile PCs that have the bare minimum of storage and work directly off the cloud. Files are created and stored online, and the applications utilized for such tasks are, for the most part, cloud-based as well.
Chromebooks are also quite light and capable of operating on much less energy than full-fledged laptops.
Earlier this month, Apple tapped into the textbook industry with the new iBooks 2 application, with which users can download interactive textbooks to their iPad.
Students will be able to read textbooks, make notes and turn them into flashcards, zoom in on detailed pictures or define unknown words immediately.
Students can download the app and buy textbooks through iTunes at $14.99 or lower.
Apple is targeting high school students and has partnered with high school textbook publishers McGraw-Hill, Pearson and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.