Google Chrome OS Needs to Prove Itself
By Laurent Lachal, Open Source Director at Ovum
Google as the Linux champion on netbooks
Google generates most of its revenues from advertising, but intends to diversify its revenue streams with offerings such as Google Apps, which have just (surprise, surprise) come out of beta and whose momentum the new OS aims to boost (along with Google Mail and Google Docs usage) in one of the only markets that is still showing some health: netbooks.
In a recent report entitled Netbooks: a Linux appliance opportunity we identified two main sequential trends in the netbook market.
The first is a shrinking netbook/laptop divide, with the average netbook price shooting up to $400. After a strong start in this market segment, Linux is now increasingly being distanced by Windows, although its performance is still outstanding compared to its overall performance in the desktop market. Google Chrome OS could potentially enable it to regain some of its lost ground.
The second trend is a reaction to the first, a back-to-basics backlash with ambition to deliver netbooks that are not only cheaper ($200 on average) but also designed as appliances/mobile Internet devices (MIDs) rather than would-be laptops. In this market Google Android, which is also Linux-based, is making good progress.
In response, Microsoft needs not only to push Windows 7 forwards but also to boost its Windows Mobile offering.
The battle is on price as well as user experience
Either free (as many expect) or low cost, the new Google OS will challenge Microsoft’s ability to maintain profit margins. It will also challenge Windows from a user experience perspective, which is key to Linux-based netbook uptake. The objective is for it to “start up […] in a few seconds”, to provide a “minimal” user interface that “stay[s] out of your way” and to be secure “so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates”. It could also be the starting point for a more integrated experience across Google applications/services and we expect it, like Android, to be linked to an online store of web applications not just to make it easier to consume these applications but also to prove that they can meet most needs.
Internet-centric but not dependent
Google dismisses OSs “designed in an era where there was no web.” The expectation behind its own OS is that “most of the user experience takes place on the Web”. The key word here is ‘most’. With technologies such as Gears (that predates the Chrome browser and is embedded in it), and the Native Client plug-in and O3D API technologies that followed, Google is also working at enabling online applications to run offline. It needs to points this out more aggressively.
Keep things in perspective
The proof of the Google Chrome OS pudding will be in its eating. When the Google Chrome browser was released, in a report entitled Google enters the open source web browser fray we warned “don’t fall for the hype; Google Chrome still has everything to prove.” A few months later, despite Google claiming 30 million regular users, the browser has not made much impact.
Similarly we do not expect Google Chrome OS to take over the world – it is a bit late for that.
With Windows 7 about to ship, it would have been better for Google to release, rather than simply announce, an alternative for the netbook market. Key to Google’s OS success will be its ability to create a strong community around it. This is going to be difficult. A rethink of the project based on an alliance/convergence effort with the Ubuntu community could help. [PR/Ovum]
Why CIOs Aren't on the Chrome Straight
By Tim Ferguson
Google's recently launched web browser, Chrome, will have to overcome a number of major obstacles before it can break the business ubiquity of Internet Explorer and counter the rise of Firefox.
Chrome is the latest product in Google's reasonably successful attempt to expand into the business software and services market and it's clear that some CIOs have already had their heads turned by Chrome.
Ben Acheson, IT Manager, PADS Printing and Commercial Stationery, considers Chrome to be the "future of web browsing" and is already testing it within the business.
Acheson also praises Chrome's "fantastic new features", such as tabs operating independently, so if one crashes it doesn't take the others with it.
"Whether we like it or not, Google is the gateway to the web for most people. They also have a good track record of bundling their other products - such as the Google toolbar - in with all sorts of other software, leading to high take-up," he added.
Peter Pedersen, CTO of clothes retailer figleaves.com, is also keen on Chrome, saying tests carried out within the business have been good with Chrome proving "far more friendly on the PC memory than IE".
But it seems while a few hearts are being stolen by Chrome, most CIOs are being ruled by their head. While they can see the benefits of Chrome, many feel making it the default option for their business could be more trouble than it's worth.
As a recent CIO Jury, in which 10 out of the 12 respondents said they're not testing the Google browser, suggested the extent of Microsoft ubiquity in most organisations could be the biggest problem.
Iain Hepburn, IT Director at law firm, Clarke Willmott, said: "We use [Microsoft Office SharePoint Server] and extensive other Microsoft applications and development tools so we pretty much live in a MS world and have to use IE to get full functionality."
Read more - silicon.com
Google Unleashes First Open Source Browser
There's no place like Chrome
Google is set to introduce today a new web browser designed to more quickly handle video-rich or other complex web programs, posing a challenge to browsers designed originally to handle text and graphics.
Google officials confirmed news of long-rumoured plans to offer its own web browsing software, entitled Google Chrome, in a company blog post after it mistakenly mailed details of the plan to a Google-watching blog, called Blogoscoped.com.
The company statement calls the move "a fresh take on the browser" and said it will be introducing a public trial of the browser for Microsoft Windows users. Details can be found here.
The internet search leader is also working on versions for Apple Mac users and for Linux devices, it said.
The launch of Chrome coincides with the recent introduction by rival Microsoft of its Internet Explorer 8 last month. Internet Explorer holds roughly three-quarters of the browser market, followed by Mozilla's Firefox and Apple's Safari browsers. Google said its engineers have borrowed from a variety of other open source projects, including Apple's WebKit and the Mozilla Firefox open source browser. As a result, Google plans to make all of Chrome software code open to other developers to enhance and expand, the company said.
Google VP of product management Sindar Pichai and engineering director Linus Upson said in a blog post: "We realised that the web had evolved from mainly simple text pages to rich, interactive applications and that we needed to completely rethink the browser."
They said Google Chrome promises to load pages faster and more securely but it also includes a new engine for loading interactive JavaScript code, dubbed V8, that is designed to run the next generation of not-yet-invented web applications.
Pichai and Upson wrote: "What we really needed was not just a browser but also a modern platform for web pages and applications, and that's what we set out to build."
A Google spokesman declined to comment beyond the blog post.
Microsoft said the recently upgraded version 8 of Internet Explorer offers many new privacy and user control features.
Dean Hachamovitch, general manager of Microsoft's Internet Explorer, said in a statement: "The browser landscape is highly competitive."
Hachamovitch said: "People will choose Internet Explorer 8 for the way it puts the services they want right at their fingertips, respects their personal choices about how they want to browse and, more than any other browsing technology, [it] puts them in control of their personal data online."
Google confirmed that it had prematurely mailed a copy of a promotional comic book detailing plans for Chrome to a blogger. Blogoscope's writer, Philipp Lenssen, scanned and published the 38-page comic, which can be found here. [Reuter]
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