HP Officially Launches Pavilion 14 Chromebook

Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) has officially launched the HP Pavilion 14 Chromebook, joining Acer, Samsung and Lenovo as core PC makers that now back Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) ChromeOS-based cloud notebooks. Is the Chromebook revolution quietly accelerating within the shadow of Microsoft‘s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Windows 8 push? Hmmm…

The fact that HP launched a Chromebook so soon after Windows 8’s debut shows just how much the PC industry has changed since the glory years of Windows 95. Back in the mid-1990s, PC makers rarely dared to introduce non-Windows machines — especially during a year when Microsoft was making a major operating system upgrade push.

Chromebooks aren’t going to take over the world but they apparently have found a niche. Unlike Linux netbooks, which ultimately died, Chromebooks seems to be catching on with web-centric users — especially those who are already familiar with Google Docs and Google Apps. (See “Five Reasons Chromebooks Win After Linux Netbooks Lost.”)

Now along comes the HP Chromebook, which costs $329.99. It’s less than an inch thick and powered by an Intel Celeron Processor. It’s available now from HPDirect.com, but will also be available from U.S. retailers soon. It seems to be positioned for consumers, but Chromebooks have also been pushing into the corporate market thanks to corporate partners like Cloud Sherpas — a Google Apps integrator that also assists customers with Chromebooks.