After a day dominated by Android, Google's I/O developer conference focused its second day on the firm's other mobile platform, Chrome OS, laying down the gauntlet to the forthcoming Windows 8, which will also span PCs and mobiles and tap into the cloud.
Chrome OS has been in the works for nearly two years and got its first official launch last year, but now Google is stepping on the pedal with big name devices and an app store, plus the obligatory attacks on Windows. Co-founder Sergey Brin said traditional 'fat' operating systems were "torturing users", pointing to a new era where business devices, in particular, would run slimmed-down platforms attached to the cloud at all times. Other OSs like Hewlett-Packard's webOS are pursuing the same agenda, though HP sees its own offering as coexisting with Windows in many situations.
Brin qualified his comments, saying there was nothing "inherently wrong with Windows" - indeed, it had key strengths such as security, an area where doubts hang over Chrome OS. But he stressed that the traditional PC concept was nearing the end of its life as users move towards more diverse devices running Linux-based systems. Chrome OS puts most of the apps and data on the web, with some offline capabilities, creating a "stateless" model that is power friendly and simple to use and manage, said Brin.
The notebook partners who turned up to showcase Chrome OS were Samsung and Acer, which will both ship notebooks next month, though there will be more interest once the system starts to turn up in tablets and other mobile internet products, as well as business products like printers. At this point, there will be some overlap with Android, though - as in HP's vision - some devices, especially for business, may run both platforms in a dual-mode fashion. It was notable that Google announced partnerships with virtualization specialists VMWare and Citrix to co-market Chrome OS and support remote access for enterprise apps.
By contrast, Android will push into a far wider array of low power mobile gadgets and consumer or M2M sectors, but will remain tilted towards native apps rather than the cloud. Chrome OS is based on the Google browser layered on top of a stripped-down Linux OS, with cloud-based back-ups and default encryption of all data. The primary function is web access but the devices will have a file system and offline access to some key apps.
The initial notebooks will sell for between $350 and $500 but Google is playing with a rental scheme - originally for students but later for businesses - offering PCs, support and upgrades for $28 per user per month ($20 for the education sector). Verizon will offer the Samsung 3G product for $499. The computers claim to start up in seconds, wake up from sleep mode almost instantaneously and boast netbook-class battery life of 6.5 to eight hours.
Google turned to everyone's favorite launch app, the Angry Birds game, to open the Chrome Web Store, which differs from most of the mobile storefronts by offering developers 95% of the revenue rather than the usual 70%. The store will be rolled out immediately in 41 countries, with a reach of 160m users.
The Chrome focus followed a day when Google fleshed out its strategy for Android, unveiling the next version, Ice Cream Sandwich, which will reunify the current tablet and smartphone variants. The search giant also aims to make Android a truly universal OS that goes well beyond handsets, into all kinds of consumer gadgets as well as the smart home. Google announced the Android@Home platform to target control and automation applications.
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