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Google Working on Tablet Version of Chrome OS

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Some are surprised by this and some seem not to be. I’m in the latter camp. Google is apparently working on a Tablet version of Chrome OS. CNet is reporting that some details in the Chrome OS source code point to some Tablet (read touch) optimized features such as a virtual keyboard and a new tab revamp that’s optimized for touch. We’ve heard about Chrome Tablets before as well.

Those who seem confused must have bought into the line that Android was for touch tablets and smartphones and Chrome was for keyboards, but then that strategy has made no real sense from the get go. Why do I say that? Google could care less what you’re using as long as they get the clicks while you’re surfing the net. Given that Chrome OS is essentially a browser you could certainly argue that it would make perfect sense on a tablet. But working with touch certainly opens up a whole new set of engineering challenges. Remember the first iPhone had only Apple Apps and the push was for web Apps not native Apps. But’s that’s before everyone realized that they could make money off of selling ads in Apps.

Of course there are those who believe that eventually the two competing OS’s  will merge one day. Maybe that will be the case, but there are certainly any number of challenges to meet before that occurs. Call me crazy, but I think Chrome OS is still way too much of “just a geek” thing and at the pace Android seems to be developing I sort of feel like that might always be the case.

1 Comment

1 Comment

  1. quillaja

    04/07/2011 at 10:07 pm

    ChromeOS is … ok I guess. As I’ve said before, if I ran a small business and used Google Apps, I might get ChromeOS notebooks for my employees who don’t need anything more… productive. I’d never get a ChromeOS tablet when there is already a far more functional tablet OS out there–Android. Honeycomb would be just as good or better than ChomeOS for notebooks too, if it had mouse support.

    Btw, thank you for changing your site to include the full article in your RSS feed again. I was about ready to dump GBM when I saw you had done that.

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