Google Chrome OS
Google just announced that they are working on a new Operating System designed for netbooks. You might think they are talking a new version of Android specially designed for netbooks, but you’ve be wrong. Google is developing a new web-based browser-powered Operating System dubbed Chrome OS. Android is Google’s Operating System for mobile devices such as the G1 phone. Chrome is Google’s internet browser comparable to Mozilla Firefox or Apple Safari. Android, Chrome OS are two different and separate overlapping projects intended for the the same market. Technology pundits had for the longest time talked about a Google Operating System of mythical proportion that would go head to head with Microsoft Windows.
The idea of a Internet Operation System is not new. The idea of the browser as a platform is as old as, well the first browser. More recently, the Palm Pre uses a proprietary Web OS, there have been rumors floating around that Facebook has been working on a web Operating System, and yet the idea has never taken off.
The engineering masterminds behind Google Chrome OS intend to initially target the new Operating System for netbooks to be released sometime after the second half of 2010. That’s like, next year! Originally, when the first netbooks started to be sold by ASUS, like last year, the de facto OS was a version of Linux. But consumers don’t want a netbook with a watered down Operating System, consumers don’t want to run some wonky cloud clone of Word. Netbooks users, myself included, want to run a full Operating System with all of the application I have already invested time and money on, such as Word! For all the engineering capital behind this project, I feel that they haven’t taken into account the trends behind current netbook sales!
As computer users, we all want a better experience. But Chrome OS is not thinking outside the box, it is not revolutionary, and it is not a disruptive technology. Chrome OS is definitely not what consumers asked for. When users say they want to get to their email instantly, that they hate waiting ten minutes to startup, and that they hate having to constantly upgrade applications… All this does not mean users want a browser powered OS! Their can better be meet with an “always on” computing device, much like the iPhone.
The iPhone is the device of the future, not a water down web powered netbook device! The OS behind the iPhone is the same OS behind OS X! Your iPhone is a netbook device! When the iPhone was initially released, the only way to develop application for the device was through the Safari browser, so all iPhone applications were initially web applications. For a whole year, web applications were the only way to develop for the iPhone. As soon, as Apple released the native iPhone SDK an explosive new market has been carved out by developers. I don’t see this same effect being caused by Google Chrome OS.
Here are a few select links regarding Google Chrome Operating System.