Chalk this one up to a “huh”? You must have heard of Google’s foray into the netbook business by offering an operating system called ChromeOS, which is very heavily browser based. It is based on Linux, on Ubuntu, the last time I checked, and depends very heavily on the “cloud” to make things work. The cloud is of course the internet – you run applications on the browser, and store your data on the internet. Very little, if anything, is actually installed or stored on the ChromeOS’ netbook’s hard drive.
According to the EETimes, the ChromeOS netbook could actually end up costing more than its Windows counterpart which it goes head-to-head with to capture the mindshare and walletshare of consumers. This is because of the requirement for high performance graphics, accelerometers and other expensive sensors, which are supposedly a requirement for ChromeOS netbooks. The high performance graphics is to allow the netbook to play back high definition video, especially YouTube (which Google owns!) videos, something that the vast majority of Windows netbooks struggle to do at the moment. What an irony eh? A netbook with a free operating system could end up costing more than a netbook with an operating system that has to be paid for, although it has to be mentioned that the one with the free OS comes with extras – but will consumers need these extras and are they willing to pay for them? I for one, am not.
Click here for more. This article also discusses why and whether there will be a need for devices, called “tweeners” (short for “in between”), that “sit” between mobile phones and proper laptops/notebooks.
