Dell said it would join a growing market of thin-and-light Chrome OS laptops with the new Chromebook 11, but the system will initially be available only to educational institutions. The company did not provide specifications for the laptop, but in an email said more Chromebooks will be announced for “budget-strapped” small-and-medium business and consumers in the coming months. Dell did not provide a shipping date for the Chromebook 11. PC makers and Google are promoting Chromebooks, which are low-cost laptops for those who do most of their computing on the Web. Dell already offers Android tablets starting at US$149, and laptops and tablets based on Windows. A new wave of Chromebooks hit the market in October from Acer, Hewlett-Packard and Samsung.