Rob’s Blog

It was only a matter of time…

First we have Google Docs in 2007,

Then Google Chrome and Google Android OS in 2008,

and now Chrome OS in 2009.

Slowly Google is continually positioning itself as a bigger thorn in the side of Microsoft (and Apple soon) than ever before. My speculation is that a desktop/laptop OS is next. But who gets hurt more from this, is it Apple or Microsoft? While Apple’s marketing is laser-focused as the alternative to the PC, where does Chrome OS lie? My speculation is that a desktop/laptop Chrome OS will steal market share from Apple as another alternative to Windows. In the netbook arena, however, Windows XP and Windows 7 Starter will have a new competitor. Sure, Linux has had its challenges in the netbook market, but this one is Google branded…

Why netbooks? Well, that’s easy. All netbooks have the same basic specs: Atom processors, Intel GMA, etc. Like Apple’s OS X, it’s a simpler kernel than having to support multiple OEMS, specs, etc (which is what Windows needs to do natively).

I must say that I’m surprised though it’s called Chrome OS and not Android or something else. I would have figured an Android netbook version would have been their offering.

Let’s see how many OEMs alter course after gearing up for the Windows 7 RTM. I suspect we will see Chrome versions of popular netbook offerings.

With Google becoming increasingly powerful (and arguably, Microsoft-like), will their “don’t be evil” internal company mantra hold up? We’ll just have to find out.

PS – As the well-known user-friendly Linux distro, I wonder how Canonical (Ubuntu) feels.