First introduced almost one year ago in July 2009, the Google Chrome OS – Google’s operating system aimed at netbooks – is all set for a Q4 2010 release.
Speaking at the Computex 2010 conference in Taipei, Google VP of product management Sundar Pichai stated that we would see the operating system on the market in the fourth quarter of this year.
The interesting debate that will arise out of this is how Google’s two platforms – the Android operating system and Chrome OS – will stack up against each other given that only one year ago Android was new and at the time and not much competition for the iPhone.
Twelve months later and Android has officially taken over from the iPhone as the No 2 best-selling mobile OS in the US. The NPD said that in the first three months of 2010, Android took 28pc of the smartphone market, while Apple’s iPhone had only 21pc.
Meanwhile, Android is also being touted as the ideal OS for mobile computing platforms outside of the smartphone, ie, tablet computing devices, which will strangely see it competing with its sister OS Chrome.
Google anticipated this last year with Pichai saying at the time: “Google Chrome OS is a new project, separate from Android. Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks.
“Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems. While there are areas where Google Chrome OS and Android overlap, we believe choice will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including Google.”
The main difference between the Chrome OS and Android is the Android is a “heavier” operating system with more features to enable the mobile computing device, whereas Chrome OS is a super-thin platform that focuses on web usage and wraps itself around the Chrome browser.
By Marie Boran
