Before the Chromebook, Google Shipped a Plain Black Laptop Called the Cr-48

The first Chromebook did not look like a product, and Google never sold it. The Cr-48 was a plain, unbranded test laptop with no flashy logos and no design flourishes. It wasn't called a Chromebook at all. Its job was to carry an idea: that a computer could be little more than a browser.

That origin is the subject of the latest episode of The Verge's Version History podcast. Host David Pierce is joined by Nilay Patel of The Verge and Marques Brownlee of MKBHD to trace the history of ChromeOS and Chromebooks. They also ask a bigger question: did Google take the right approach to computer hardware?

The Cr-48 worked as a pilot program. Instead of launching a finished device, Google handed out a prototype so people could try a web-first operating system for themselves. The hardware was deliberately forgettable, which put the focus on the software. That was a sharp contrast with the polished consumer gadgets that dominated the market at the time.

The idea paid off in a place Google may not have expected. Chromebooks went on to become a fixture in classrooms, where cheap, easy-to-manage laptops suited schools well. This season of Version History has been exploring iconic school technology, and last week's episode looked at Nicholas Negroponte and his One Laptop per Child project. Putting the two stories side by side shows how differently people have tried to bring computers to students.

The conversation also weighs Google's hardware choices over the years. Rather than building every Chromebook itself, Google leaned on partners to make most of the machines, while occasionally releasing its own premium models. Whether that mix helped or hurt the platform is the debate the hosts take on.

For anyone who has used a Chromebook, whether in a school lab or at a coffee shop, the episode is a look back at where it all began: a nondescript black laptop that most people never got to buy.