The next big thing for Google may almost be here. TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington reported Friday that a reliable source — he doesn’t say whether within or outside the company — tells him that the Chrome operating system will be available “within a week.”
The rumors could be true, but shoppers shouldn’t expect to be able to buy a Chrome-driven netbook anytime soon, said Jeff Orr, a senior analyst for ABI Research. “Reading into it from my own experience doing launches and the general history, this may be a developer’s preview or something along those lines. We will not likely see widespread availability from netbook manufacturers. I think the second half of 2010 is still correct for that.”
The idea of an incremental release — not a full-blown introduction — was echoed by Andrew Borg, a senior research analyst for wireless and mobility for the Aberdeen Group. Borg said netbooks driven by the Chrome OS are extremely unlikely to be on store shelves for the holidays, though a demonstration model and a release to developers is possible.
An OS Built for the Web
Plans for the Chrome OS were unveiled during the first week in July. The introductory blog posting, attributed to Sundar Pichai, Google’s vice president of product management, and Linus Upson, the company’s engineering director, called the Chrome OS a “natural extension” of the Chrome browser.
The July 7 posting said the Chrome browser aims at folks who spend most of their time on the web. It relies, however, on operating systems introduced before the web existed. The Chrome OS, the post said, is designed to provide the browser with more appropriate support.
The post goes into some detail on the operating system. The theme is that the open-source OS will be lightweight and most of the heavy lifting will be shifted to the Web….