Google to offer netbook OS

Taking another swipe at Redmond, it’ll be interesting to see if Google tries to port this new OS up to the desktop if the netbook rollout is successful.

From the link:

Google Inc plans to attack Microsoft Corp’s core business by taking on the software giant’s globally dominant Windows operating system for personal computers.Google, which already offers a suite of e-mail, Web and other software products that compete with Microsoft, said on Tuesday it would launch a new operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks.

Microsoft shares fell 1.4 percent to $22.22 in early Nasdaq trade on Wednesday. Google shares rose 1.2 percent to $401.36.

Called the Google Chrome Operating System, the new software will be in netbooks for consumers in the second half of 2010, Google said in a blog post, adding that it was working with multiple manufacturers.

Smartbooks are coming

What? You’re just getting used to smartphones and netbooks are still something of a tiny little mystery computer? Look out because synergy is ongoing and the smartbook is the next device in the pipeline.

All joking aside price- and feature-wise smartbooks look interesting. With a port to plug in an external drive I can see these being decent alternatives to full-on laptops.

From the link:

What exactly is a smartbook, aside from a term drawn from the the obvious blend of “smartphone” and “netbook”?

Slideshow: 10 Hot Netbooks – From Pricey to Dirt Cheap

First mentioned last November in a speech by a marketing executive from hard drive maker Western Digital, a smartbook will be a computing device similar in size or slightly smaller than today’s netbook with smartphone-like features.

Glen Burchers, consumer marketing director at Freescale Semiconductor Inc., says those features could include all-day battery life, instant-on capability and “persistent connectivity,” and specs such as an ARM-based chip core, a Linux OS version like Google Inc.’s Android, and, most importantly to consumers, a price point significantly lower than today’s netbooks.

“We fully expect $199 devices with 8.9-inch screens, Wi-Fi, full-sized keyboard, 8-hour battery life, 512MB of RAM and 4-8 Gigabytes of [solid-state] storage by the end of the year,” Burchers said.

By comparison, the cheapest netbooks based on Intel Corp.’s Atom CPU, such as Hewlett-Packard Co.’s just-announced Mini 110, sell for under $300.