These days, a Google product announcement is cause to send the entire tech world into a frenzy wondering how it will affect specific industries and product lines. Today’s announcement of the Google Chrome Operation System is no different. I’m still trying to wrap my ahead around the Chrome OS concept, but one thing is for sure: sink or swim, Chrome OS will have some type of effect on Android adoption for netbooks.
Chrome is Google’s Internet-based — scratch that, Internet-dependent OS that relies completely on web apps and cloud services. There’s no hard drive to store your favorite photos and MP3’s, nor is there a place to install Photoshop and iTunes to edit or play them. People will be able to use flash drives, but Google suggests “90%” of time spent on a computer is browser-based, so why not just make users store their photos in Picasa and play their music in Pandora, Spotify, Slacker, or imeem?
The hook for Chrome, which is designed specifically for netbook use, is that it’s super-fast and super-light. That speed, along with the always-present push that comes from being a Google product, is sure to grab quite a bit of attention and support. How much of that support might have gone to Android?
Since Android first entered consumer hands with the T-Mobile G1 last October, people have wondered if it would be a platform for Mobile Internet Devices and netbooks. Then came the months-long parade of companies saying they were considering their options, personal modders hacking their computers to run Android, and finally an official netbook from Acer (D250) that dual-boots Android and Windows XP. It was a case of thought-to-product in less than a year.
Chrome is a year off from being released and still in development, but I have to venture that companies who will display interest in this may have also considered optimizing Android for use in its netbook. We’ve seen companies use Android to spruce up their MID’s, tablets, and personal media players, but netbook use will be less-likely if Google can offer those products a faster, web-based operating system.
Android-powered netbooks were once considered a very small but troublesome threat to Microsoft Windows’ market share. Ironically, Chrome could prove to be a threat to Android getting off the ground as a viable netbook operating system.
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November 19th, 2009 at 8:41 pm
Sirgay seemed genuinely excited about Chrome OS. And not just because it's a new product from Google. But because the idea is sound, and the implementation is probably going to be just as unique, and all-encompassing just like every previous Google product.
Will it be the death of the Android platform on netbooks? Surely. I think Android has found its niche in cell phones, MIDs, and PMPs, which was what Google intended for the release of Android: find where it fits, and make it prominent in those sectors. I think we can agree that Android is prominent in cell phones now; especially with the release of the DROID, it's become a household name, even if no one knows that's what they're talking about.
But, is this a bad thing? I don't think so. To be honest, the interconnectedness that Sirgay and his team alluded to in that webcast, by way of Google Chrome OS, is so amazing that I want that way more than I want Android powering my netbook. Chrome OS may not change the game entirely, or even threaten the livelihood of the other Operating Systems out there, but it will make an impact. It will change the way people look at their time spent on their computers.
November 19th, 2009 at 9:22 pm
I hope not. After watching the presentation videos today I think they missed the target with Chrome. Then again, I see tablets exploding and netbooks declining in 2010, which would play right into Android's strengths.
November 19th, 2009 at 10:55 pm
Google Chrome Operation System? D:
Operating System, not Operation System. And you need to differentiate between Chrome (the web browser) and Chrome OS, the linux-based OS that's been hacked up just to run Chrome.
And really, who would want Android on a netbook, anyway? If I've got something as big as a netbook, that's enough hardware power to run a much more fully featured OS.
November 19th, 2009 at 11:35 pm
I'm very confused. My Android phone is always connected wirelessly, but it requires storage. My netbook is often connected, but not always, and it doesn't require storage?
Obviously the future of netbooks as Google sees it will require 3G (or 4G) connections. Otherwise the device will be useless. BUT an Android netbook could run apps without being connected and those apps require very little storage.
November 19th, 2009 at 11:44 pm
@Gunderstorm,
The way Google sees it, the future netbooks that run Chrome OS will be companion devices. Meaning, you have your standard PC, or laptop, sitting around the house, and this other thing gets taken with you. Like a normal netbook. And while the netbooks will be designed with WiFi in mind, you are right about that 3G (or 4G, if that's the case) connectedness. But not because the applications that you have on your netbook won't work offline. Sirgay confirmed that the applications will be able to work offline, because obviously not everyone can be online all the time.
However, does that mean there won't be any 3G or 4G connection in the future netbooks? I doubt that's up to them, to be honest. The manufacturers will work that out with the wireless carriers, and then we'll get to pay for whatever they all decide for us what is best.
November 20th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
Beside the word "stateless" , what is the interest of that video?
December 28th, 2009 at 10:17 am
Hey! did you already read it: Nokia N97 is available for Pre-Order in Scotland for 450