Google's Chrome OS isn't as farfetched as it sounds. The underlying concept, the computer and operating system as portals to content in the cloud, seems like an inevitability, really. While a lot of content still resides on hard or solid state drives, all signs point to a day when we'll rouse a sliver of a laptop from slumber and interact with all our content on remote servers.
Given Google's (GOOG) track record with cloud-based services, who better to make the next step, right?
I thought as much until my own Chrome OS CR-48 netbook arrived in the mail a few weeks ago. At 4 pounds, the CR-48 resembles a black polycarbonate (aka hard plastic) MacBook without the DVD drive. Even cooler is the total lack of a company logo on the thing – way to be anti-establishment, Google – and the inclusion of decals and laptop skins you could decorate it with. All in all, major points on the design. More
Is the speedy dual-core CPU enough to act as a good netbook as well as a phone?
A few years ago Palm introduced the idea of using a smartphone as the brains of a netbook with their Foleo product. The Foleo was a ARM-based netbook (though it actually pre-dated netbooks) that would sync itself with Palm Treos which would then send information to the Internet. At the time, Palm was in MORE
Seth Weintraub - Jan 5, 2011 11:36 PM ET
Chrome OS Cr-48 laptop dissected.
That anonymous black netbook that Google (GOOG) announced yesterday doesn't have any labels or specs attached to it. That doesn't mean the web isn't already taking it apart.
Digitimes says it is produced by Inventec and 60,000 of them are making their way to beta testers. It will likely be based on an Intel Atom N550 platform which runs at 1.5GHz with 1GB L2 cache. RAM and storage MORE
Seth Weintraub - Dec 8, 2010 1:48 PM ET
At the Web 2.0 Summit today, Google's Eric Schmidt had some bad news for people wanting ChromeOS Netbooks for Christmas. It ain't happening.
Chrome Netbook Mockup from CNET
Earlier this month, a report of of Taiwan pegged ChromeOS Netbook shipping times to "late in November" yet not a peep has been heard from Google.
The last we heard officially about ChromeOS, specifically from Google's Sundar Pichai in May, was that consumer MORE
Seth Weintraub - Nov 15, 2010 11:24 PM ET
But a pair of surveys finds patterns could spell trouble down the line
Photo: Apple Inc.
Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at the NPD Group, doesn't buy the theory that Apple's (AAPL) iPad is to blame for this year's slow-down in netbook sales.
"It had nothing to do with the iPad," he says. "Sales growth had already started to trail off [before the iPad was released], and it wasn't MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Oct 1, 2010 12:04 PM ET
But most went ahead and bought the netbook, according to a Retrevo "pulse report"
Source: Retrevo
Below: The leanings of shoppers who have to choose between a netbook and Apple's (AAPL) tablet computer this year.
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - May 25, 2010 7:40 PM ET
By 2011, Apple will have captured 7% of the low-end computer market, says an analyst
Apple's current share: 0%. Source: Deutsche Bank
"We expect the iPad to compete very well against existing low-end notebooks and netbooks, particularly in the segment of the market where surfing, reading, game playing and emailing dominate the usage model."
So says Deutsche Bank's Chris Whitmore in a note released Sunday.
In fact, he writes, with the release of MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Feb 1, 2010 11:26 AM ETMason Cohn, Producer - Nov 20, 2009 1:20 PM ET
Mason Cohn, Producer - Oct 26, 2009 11:34 AM ET
Penelope Patsuris - Jul 16, 2009 10:01 AM ET
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