While there has been much speculation about webkit powered Chrome and the possible implications for Apple’s Safari browser, we think the shot Google fired last week was across a different bow altogether.
Follow us after the jump where we discuss how Chrome has it’s sights set on Windows and why Apple couldn’t care less if there’s ever a Safari v4.0.
What Chrome Is
Chrome is an operating system for cloud computing. It bears as much resemblance to current generation browsers as the Phoenix BIOS does MS Windows. This is stated clear as day in Google’s User Experience Documentation:
“In the long term, we think of [Chrome] as a tabbed window manager or shell for the web rather than a browser application.“
Even the comic used to explain Chrome to others pretty clearly states that the process manager used in Chrome is patterned after an operating system rather than traditional browsers.
What Does that Mean?
Google believes that the average person doesn’t need a computer, at least not anything even remotely close to the veritable super-computers most of us are toting around. They are for the most part, correct. This is one reason why we’ve been touting the need for the Apple tablet for some time now.
See most folks, surf, shop, listen to music, and maybe, just maybe edit a few documents and exchange emails. The only time a modern computer comes anywhere close to fully utilized is playing video games.
The cloud computing philosophy states that instead of computers, folks really need stylish consumer electronics that have the ability to connect to a larger computing cloud to perform computational tasks, when needed.
Sound familiar?
You didn’t think iPhone was really a phone did you?
Why Apple Isn’t Worried about Safari or Anything else for that Matter
Apple isn’t worried about Safari because Google has done gone and promised to continue development of a webkit-based browser for free. If you were Steve: some other company decides to use your technology to build a browser for your platform and release all their improvements back to you? Letting that happen would be what we consultants call a “Good Business Decision“.
Now the erosive force that Chrome will ultimately have on the Windows market will surely effect OS X, yet I argue Apple isn’t worried. Why? Three reasons:
- OS X is already one of the best OS’s on which to power a “Cloud”. It’s grid computing capability is way ahead of most other OS’s. OS X will continue, I promise.
- Most Mac Users either work in a creative business, or have hobbies that are highly creative. My Mac Pro doesn’t get stressed playing games, it does however get a pretty full workout decoding HD Video, and editing photographs. These functions are hard to replicate in a cloud computing environment, and won’t be for decades.
- Uh”¦ “Stylish Consumer Electronics”“¦ who do we know that makes those? Apple’s chief source of revenue is HARDWARE sales. It matters not two figs to them if that hardware is an iTablet, or a Macbook Pro.
In a cloud computing world, which it will be in a less than a decade, I see a marriage between the world’s premier cloud provider (Google), and it’s foremost consumer electronics company.
Of course a formal alliance to that end would be premature to announce today, but in the near future look for something subtle, like the CEO of one being on the Board of the other.
Oh Wait!
Leigh McMullen leads the Advisory Services & Strategy practices for the professional services arm of one of the Big-Five firms. He has written several books that would cure any insomnia you might have, and is an avid Mac junkie.
