The Kogan Agora Laptop powered by Chromium OS goes on sale today for £269 in the United Kingdom and $349 in Australia and ships direct to customers next week.

Kogan’s Chromium OS Laptop is based on the popular Agora hardware, adds a Solid State Drive, lets users operate entirely in the cloud, and boots in 4.5 seconds.

Ruslan Kogan said the world-first product was testament to Kogan’s efficiency and agility.

“We’ve been able to beat the rest of the world to bring the first commercially available laptop running Google’s Chromium OS.

“Google’s Chromium OS is an open source project, making it a constant work in progress. This means the system will improve over time and new features and improvements will keep getting introduced by the open source community.

“While Chromium is still in its early stages, we know the operating system is innovative technology which represents the future of computing. It may take some getting used to for some to operate entirely in the cloud, but the massive benefits for the end user are driving acceptance of entirely web-based services.

“What we’ve found from talking to our customers is that many of them are already using cloud services without even realising it. They’re uploading photos to services like Flickr, storing all their contacts in Gmail, and even hosting files on DropBox.

“Loading up a laptop with Google’s open source software can be strange at first. However it’s clear that everyone from casual users to pros are embracing cloud services with all their personal computing needs.

“The real beauty is that no matter which Chromium powered computer you’re on anywhere in the world, it will appear exactly as you expect, tailored to your needs. Google is also working hard to ensure that Chrome integrates seamlessly with all Android based devices.

“Samsung and Acer announced Chromebooks based on Chromium OS last month, but we’ve beaten them to market. Kogan is the most agile consumer electronics manufacturer in the world. We react faster to market trends than anyone else.

“The first Kogan Agora Laptops powered by Google’s Chromium OS will be in customer’s hands next week and we’re very excited. Our business has already been operating entirely in the cloud for years!” Kogan said.

For more information on Google’s open source Chromium OS project, which powers the Kogan Agora Chromium OS Laptop: http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os

About Kogan

Kogan is a designer, manufacturer and retailer of consumer electronics. Kogan’s streamlined business model allows us to bring the latest and best consumer electronics and home appliances direct to the door of smart shoppers through kogan.com.au and kogan.co.uk. We engage our customers through our blog, Facebook and Twitter, and release new products based on the feedback we receive. We believe there is always a better way to create and deliver the technology people want.

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Over the pond, Google have already used Lady Gaga to advertise their Chrome browser and it has also run ads during the SuperBowl, one of the most expensive advertising slots of the year.

It represents a new tack from Google in the UK, which has regularly advertised on print and billboard platforms, but has not tried to so obviously tap into the mainstream audience. This marketing push seems to be working as its Google’s Chrome Browser is steadily making up ground on Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, pushing 11% of the market, only three years from launch.