Google OS Is Real And No Threat To Apple

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People have been speculating about a Google OS for years, and finally it’s official. Chrome OS will be open source, free, and popping up on a netbook near you in about a year or so from now.

And do you think Apple’s worried? Nah.

Apple doesn’t give a damn about netbooks, as it has already made crystal clear.

I’ve no doubt that Chrome OS will be a huge success, especially if it ends up being as fast and as simple as Google promises. On netbooks, it will perhaps cut into sales of Linux-based devices, and to a lesser extent the ones running Windows 7. And we shouldn’t underestimate the potential of Windows 7 – it’s the best thing to come out of Microsoft in a long, long time.

And that’s what Google is taking aim at. The intention is to eat into Microsoft’s market share, to get Chrome OS installed on netbooks first, then notebooks and desktops later. Apple, even with eight per cent or whatever it claims nowadays, isn’t in its sights.

I doubt if anyone at Apple even gives a damn. Assuming they are building a tablet-like gadget to take the MacBook name and do to other tablets what the iPhone is doing to cell phones, they’ll also be working on an OS X + iPhone OS derivative to run on it. And if that’s the case, it’ll be very interesting to see how it stacks up against Chrome OS.

But anyway. Hi Google. Welcome to the OS club. It gets hot in here sometimes.

UPDATE

M’colleague Leigh McMullen emails me to point out that Chrome-as-an-OS was something he predicted way back in September last year, in a post entitled Google Sets Sights on Windows and its entertaining follow-up Chrome is an OS, Not a Premature Googasm. Both worth re-reading in light of today’s news.

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