Photo: BlubrNL / Flickr

In a by-the-books presentation, the Google Chrome OS team finally showed off what they’ve been working on for the last few years. The web-based OS platform for portable computers will be released before mid 2011 and has some very impressive features, including a fully-fledged Chrome web store that is already live.

Clean install in under 60 seconds

While the presentation itself was somewhat lackluster, the hardware impressed, especially when Google showed off what was possible in a wholly ‘cloud computing’ environment, as well as in its performance comparison to Windows. One particularly amazing revelation was how a brand-new install of Google Chrome OS takes less than 60 seconds, which is exponentially faster than an equivalent Windows install.

Furthermore the Chrome OS notebooks (Google didn’t once use the term ‘netbooks’) are instant on, and will all be SSD-based, just like the recently launched Apple Macbook Air.

Free data

In a pleasantly surprising move, Google announced that Chrome OS notebooks sold in North America will each receive free 100mb monthly data provided by Verizon for two years, with data plans starting at $9.99 (£6.40) for additional use. The move is very reminiscent to Amazon’s whispernet service that sees Kindle users having free access to 3G data services to use with the e-reader.

It makes perfect sense that Google does this, especially since this cloud computing OS is only at its full potential when it can leverage the web.

Chrome web store

The Google Chrome OS event was also used as an opportunity to unveil the search giant’s Chrome Web Store that requires the Chrome browser to install applications. The store itself has a layout reminiscent to how Apple’s App store looks, making it immediately accessible for new users. And, to be honest, given Google showed off a CAD application running side-by-side with an Excel spreadsheet, consider us super interested in what’s possible with a purely cloud computing operating system and applications landscape.

Soon

The long and short of it is this – Google cannot release Chrome OS soon enough, because we’re dying to get our hands on it. And though we’ve shown trepidation about the world’s readiness to fully embrace an exclusively cloud-based environment, the small demo shown today may have made believers out of us. It’s infinitely more interesting than current netbook solutions, and could be a big ploy in the methodical erosion of Windows dominance on the OS landscape.

For a blow-by-blow account of how the presser went down and additional details on individual features, go over to this page where Engadget live-blogged it.

Photo: BlubrNL / Flickr

While the viability of the netbook market, in a post-tablet PC world, is in question, Google has been pressing on with its web-based operating system, Chrome OS. And if rumours are to be believed, the first Google Chrome netbooks will reach market this month, still.

November/December phase one of launch

The relentlessly resourceful folks over at Digitimes report that the first Chrome OS netbook will hit market this November, citing unnamed sources. While the first tablet is not expected to be released by one of the big manufacturers, some big players, Acer included, are rumoured to release their Google Chrome netbooks in December.
The timing isn’t at all a surprise to be fair, with this being the timeframe we reported a few months ago when Chrome OS was last discussed.

Is it too late for netbooks, in general?

A giant question mark hovers over the netbook category of computers, as well as over the place of Google Chrome OS. Firstly, netbooks are in decline, thanks to the rapid rise of tablet computers. Add to that smaller form factor ‘laptops’ like the new Apple Macbook Air also moving into their space, it is uncertain how much longer consumers will find netbooks a compelling choice.

Is it too late for Chrome?

With regards to Chrome OS, Google had articulated it wanted Chrome for netbooks and other small form factors of computing – i.e. tablets – but Android, which was initially planned as a smartphone OS, is already bleeding into the tablet space. As such, consumers, analysts, and journalists alike are unsure whether Chrome and Google Android can co-exist, and, more importantly, whether they should even be two separate operating systems.

The big question, ultimately, is do you even care about Google Chrome OS in general? This operating system could be doomed before even launching.

Photo: HTC

We know that a Google Chrome tablet is incoming. Google has been fairly open about it. But what was not known until now, that is, is that Google would commission its own tablet and have their trusty partners at HTC build in, if a recent report is to be believed.

November release date?

The Download Squad, citing a source, says the Chrome Pad would drop 26 November in the US – which is incidentally Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year in the US. Hmm. US carrier Verizon will supposedly be offering the tablet on a two year data contract, which means the tablet may be free under contract. Double hmm!

If our hopes pan out, then the Google Chrome tablet may be released worldwide – read: key markets around the globe – on the same day so as to give Google’s new operating system the international catwalk treatment. The UK usually falls under the ‘key markets’ heading, so we’re hoping a carrier like Vodafone could offer a similar deal here.

Disruptive purchasing model

If this pricing model proves true, it would make for a compelling reason for fence sitters to take the plunge. Unlike the iPad where you buy the device and the requisite data bundle separate of each other, here you can spread the cost of the device over the life of your contract, making it much easier for this to become an impulse purchase. It’s a clever model to overcome iPad-inflicted trepidation, especially if the economics play out for all concerned – Google, HTC and the carriers.

BFFs

Photo: HTC

HTC’s involvement in building the Chrome Pad is little surprise either, since they and Google have become BFFs as a result of the mutual success they’ve had with the Google Android platform. HTC built the Google Nexus One, too, so the two companies have experience working on a device together. What is notable, though, is that Google clearly learnt from its botched ‘we’ll sell our hardware ourselves’ experiment that saw the Nexus One returning disappointing sales figures. Leave it to those who know what they’re doing, huh?

‘C’mon Chrome Pad! Bring it!’ – iPad

What’s particularly interesting about this Google Chrome tablet rumour if true is that it puts itself right in the way of the freight train that is the iPad. And, if the respective successes of Google Android and the iPhone are any indication, it could be a case of an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object.
And watching Google and Apple slug it out like this makes for riveting stuff. The two companies have the brightest engineering minds on the planet coupled with an uncanny ability to inspire mass adoption that makes watching their growing conflict so much fun.

I’ll go out on a limb and say never in the history of technology have we had two such colossal, brilliant organisations going at each other full-bloodedly in a war that could swing either way. Perhaps the technology historians among you can school me a bit.

What are your thoughts on the Chrome Pad and does it stand a chance against the iPad sales freight train?

Photo: Google

As Microsoft rolled out its browser selection, Google has released a version of Chrome that auto-translates foreign language websites as well as launching a major advertising campaign in the UK.

More than just speed

Google Chrome, which is widely revered as being the fastest browser on the planet, with only Opera able to dispute that claim, has been able to gain a 5% market share in a little over a year through creative advertising by Google, which included prompts on Google and Gmail to download the web browser.

Now, with an update to the latest Chrome on PC, Google has integrated its translation service into the browser, meaning websites foreign to users will be translated to the user’s language of choice, Google could cement itself in markets where website languages has always been a thorn in the user’s side.

The advertising giant advertises

Photo: Google

In uncharacteristic form, the company, which reinvented online advertising, is investing in old school print and outdoor advertising. Giant billboards with a huge Google Chrome logo have been seen across the UK, as well as Google’s purchase of a full-page article in a widely circulated UK daily.

This newfound gravitas towards advertising has seen Google splash out money at the hugest American advertising event, which happens to be a $3 million 30 second slot at the Super Bowl (of American football). Though this particular commercial was not for Google Chrome, but rather for Google Search, it did show a side to Google unseen before – a willingness to invest in a medium many people thought it would completely take over.

Extensions and promises

Photo:Apple

Google is beginning to roll out extensions on Mac, too, which will give the browser even more value. Extensions are the equivalent of Firefox’s add-ons, which allows developers to programme small web-apps that run within the browser, which, if used frequently by Internet users, lock those users in to that browser. Much of Firefox’s success is attributable to add-ons, and Google hopes extensions plus the Microsoft browser ballad plus its advertising campaign will give it valuable market share in the browser wars.

Google and Apple had been the closest of partners, until recently. The alliance made sense, though: both companies believed they had a common enemy in Microsoft, both organisations were/are technology’s star players who brought a coolness to their work not seen since Sony’s Walkman days, and both had markets big enough that they could conquer without getting in each other’s way.

Crossing the line

All was well until Google announced Android, the smartphone operating system designed to compete with Apple’s iPhone. This did not sit well with Steve Jobs and co. Then, as Android grew in stature, the search giant pulled the curtains back on Google Chrome, a web browser that would compete directly with Apple’s Safari. In the wake of the web browser, Google unveiled Chrome OS, an operating system designed to compete with Microsoft, but which has emerged as the software that powers tablets set to compete with the iPad.

Retaliating

Apple, unsurprisingly unhappy with Google’s offensive, set to defend themselves as well as launch a counterattack. Apple motioned to reject Google Voice, an application they stated duplicated the core iPhone functionality. What was actually the case was that Apple feared Google had too big a presence on its phone platform. This led to an FCC investigation regarding anti-competitive practices and Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO, stepped down from Apple’s board because the two companies were competing too closely in the mobile space. Apple then purchased Quattro, a mobile advertising business, in a direct offensive in a space Google all but dominates. And so the standoff began.

Here we stand

It looks as if things won’t subside, either. At a town hall-style company meeting, Steve Jobs said a few choice words about Google, essentially claiming the search company had come into their space, and not the other way around.

Between Google Chrome, Google Chrome OS, Android, iPhone and Quattro, Apple and Google’s relationship has reached, if not already passed, breaking point.