Anyone who has been on Twitter for the past couple of hours will have notice the over abundance of messages about Google’s Chrome OS announcement today. Then the deluge of posts started showing up letting us know all about the details on how in Google’s words “a new model of computing” was happening; or at least would be happening in a year from now when they actually ship web-browser operating system.
Interestingly enough much of the shot across the bow’s of Microsoft and Apple rhetoric has subsided as the ocean of Google kool-aid recedes from the minds of many tech bloggers . I guess that happens though when you suddenly find your fodder for future pageview inducing posts over a war that will never happen go poof in the night. That said the big news out of today’s announcement was that the ChromeOS is that you have no control over your computer other than to browse, write a few documents, play web-based games and even then it has to pass through the Chrome OS guardhouse to get approval to play.
I just finished a discussion with my good friend Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins who seems to think that this is a play for the low-income bracket who can’t afford fancy things like laptops or desktops.
Here’s the Whoop-Dee-Doo: There are 30% of north americans unable to get online because they can’t afford a full fledged computing device. This is a play for them. This could, potentially, replace the need for a mobile phone and a desktop device for them. Potentially. At the very least replace the need for a full fledged system.
All well and nice but if you are that low income that you have to hook yourself up with a sub-par netbook for under $200 as Mark suggests what makes you think these same people are going to be able to afford the ever increasing broadband access fees that are being charged.
As idyllic and Utopian as this idea of free operating system… err browsing experience for everyone might be I find it interesting that at a time when the iPhone is the big news and the average price of a smartphone – not counting the cost of the data plans needed – is around the $200 – $300 Google decides to go this route. After all combine a netbook and Google Voice with a bluetooth headset and viola you have a smartphone, and then some.
You have to give Google credit though – it’s a hell of a way to increase their advertising network which is how they make the largest portion of t heir money. But as a great leap forward for our computer experience – or a new model as they call it well I only have this to say
Chrome OS Round-up
Here’s a bunch of the posts that I followed today in trying to keep up with the Google hype machine.
ReadWriteWeb: Live Blog: The Google Chrome OS Press Event Google Blog: Releasing the Chromium OS open source project DownloadSquad: Google ChromeOS: It’s basically a modified browser that runs web apps DVICE: Google Chrome OS revealed, won’t be ready for a year SiliconAngle: Chrome OS Isn’t an Anti-Microsoft, Anti-Apple Play [Gratuitous Backpatting] The Next Web: Chrome OS Still A Year Away – Screenshots and First Information VentureBeat: Google aims to release Chrome OS for netbooks by holiday season 2010 GigaOM: Chrome OS Unveiled, Focused on Netbooks, the Cloud
