Aren't these Chromebooks subsidized by Google to get into mainstream faster? I always felt there were big tie-ups. (See Asus Nexus tablet pricing)

And How much is a google user+account worth? An android or a chromebook device is worth atleast $$$+ for Google on the long-run. And users are Locked'in with google's services! And more and more Web users mean more $ flows for google. :)

It must be certain for every subsidized device that ships, Google must be sharing revenues.