Chromebook laptops are now being used in twice as many schools as they were three months ago, according to Google.

The cloud-based Chrome OS devices are being used in 2,000 schools around the world, according to a blog post published on Friday by Google's global education evangelist, Jamie Casap.

Casap gave examples of three US schools that are using Chromebook laptops in North Carolina, Florida and California. The schools have 900, 2,200 and 1,100 Chromebooks respectively.



Chromebooks for education in the UK start from £191 and are therefore considerably cheaper than other laptops on the market. They include the free Google Apps for Education, which allow pupils to communicate and collaborate with each other through applications like Gmail, Calendar, and Docs.

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UK primary and secondary schools are also using Chromebooks. King Solomon Academy in Marylebone, London has a total of 66 Samsung Chromebooks.

"It is very easy for students to learn how to work the devices, and it didn't take too long before they could work on projects on their own," Bruno Reddy, a maths teacher at the school, said in a statement.

Paganel Primary School near Birmingham, UK purchased 32 Samsung Chromebooks last year and allocated them to a class of year six children, aged 10-11.

Steve Philip, deputy head teacher at Paganel School, said in a statement: "When you consider all the software licences, server investment and ongoing maintenance costs of running regular laptops, we also anticipate long-term cost savings from the Chromebooks."

Chrome OS is already available on laptops made by Samsung and Acer, while HP announced its first Chromebook today in the form of the Pavilion 14. The device comes with a 14-inch display, a 1.1GHz Intel Celeron processor, 16GB solid-state storage, three USB ports, a webcam and a removable battery that can last for just over four hours.

Lenovo also announced last month that it plans to delve into the education market with its own Chromebook, the Lenovo ThinkPad Chromebook .