Google ChromeOS – What’s up with that

There’s been a lot of speculation about Google ChromeOS and what it’s target is. Many originally thought it was set out to be the Windows killer and have taken that assumption back. The deliberate disabling of the use of hard disk drives in favor of SSD or flash drives makes this very clear it’s going to be a tough sell on the desktop for now.

The current thought is that it’s targeted at the netbook market. It’s my supposition that ChromeOS is really targeted at the tablet market. Talk is that Apple will be coming out with a tablet in 2010 and it’s going to be the break through device. It will only be a break through device if it can be more than an e-reader as the current incarnations of the Kindle and Nook are. I’ve found the Kindle to be a very cool device yet when using it I feel like I’m missing something, the something is the true two way interaction available on a mobile phone or computer. If Apple can make their tablet a light a device as the Kindle, a true two way device like a smart phone and enable the app store they have the pieces to bring a powerful new device to market. Missing any one of those three pieces and it ends up being another niche item, not that the Apple faithful niche is anything to scoff at.

This is where Google and ChromeOS step in. My read is that ChromeOS will be an excellent choice for a tablet device and it’s made to be an application platform from the get go. Google has hedged a safe bet in letting Apple break water with their device. Apple is good at marketing and has the mind share to make a new device type “cool”. Google can then allow hundreds of other device manufacturers to make use of ChromeOS to power multiple renditions of similar devices. These competitors will be leap frogging each others hardware faster then Apple can wait through their release cycle. It something we’re starting to see in the Android phone market and will only work quicker the next time around.