Google extends software support for Chromebooks by one year

Chromebooks are increasingly becoming popular, particularly in the U.S. market where they accounted for a major chunk of notebook sales last year. Google, the company that makes the OS powering them, is making changes along the way to make these cloud-based OS powered notebooks even more attractive to prospective buyers. Google has updated its End of Life policy for Chromebooks and has extended software support by one year. All Chromebooks will now get software support for five years.

Google is updating its End of Life (EOL) policy for Chromebooks and other Chrome OS devices. Now instead of offering a minimum of 4 years of software updates and support, Google will offer at least 5 years of support. That clock starts ticking the day a new Chromebook or Chromebox is made available to commercial customers, so the Dell Chromebook 11 which launched this January, for instance, will receive official support from Google through at least January, 2019. Google’s EOL policy applies to many devices that had already launched — for instance the Lenovo X131e Chromebook which had previously had an End of Life Date of February, 2017 is now supported through February, 2018.