We were busy porting android to netbooks, thinking Google will develop their mobile OS android, in to a normal operating system, working on netbooks, laptops and even desktops. Now, the news it out that its not the android OS, but the Google Chrome OS. For many, its only a name change. Everything else remains the same, Google is building an operating system, that’s the big news. But how big is this news ?
Microsoft, this is big news for you
Yes, not in the good way, but still this is a big news for you people. Microsoft found themselves lucky when there were reports of people returning Linux based netbooks, and windows XP doing better in netbook market. Busy working on windows 7, making it light enough for netbooks, here comes the shocking news, Google Chrome OS.
Linux may not be popular among non geeks,  but Google sure is, and that’s what worries MS. ( if they are worried at all .. I mean, its not easy to break Microsoft’s market share, something that they earned over many years ). If google chrome OS is going to use Google Docs, Google Reader, Google Search, Google Talk ( With video chat ), and many others google products, people will not have tough time switching to the new OS. Because, they are familiar with all these things, and  if Google integrates them in such a way that they work seamlessly online and offline, that’ll be a big thing and people will fall for it.
So, Google Chrome is something bigger than Linux and ubuntu to worry about sir.
Netbook prices will go down, and the demand, up
Simple economics, when the price is lower, demand will go up. Netbooks minus the cost for XP = more demand for them, replace XP with Google Chrome with Google Chrome OS, then you get a low cost idea for a Netbook. What if Google subsidizes netbooks with their operating system ? Hmm, that’s a point …
Acer is a company that does much better on the price factor than any other laptop/netbook making company. There are many companies looking for a chance to reduce the price, and get rid of XP from their netbooks. Intel’s moblin OS was such an effort. So, this is very much possible.
There are much more possible, with Google Chrome OS is out. What you think will be it’s future ? Share here …
photo by Wesley Fryer
