Chrome OS could be derailed quite quickly without the proper support from vendors. Acer, Samsung, and several other companies currently plan on supporting the operating system, but it’s a long-term game. If they don’t see the OS selling as well as they would like, they will jump ship. Google must keep that in mind. The sooner it can attract consumer attention to the software platform, the sooner it can limit its chances of seeing Chrome OS become a failure.
As mentioned, consumers need to decide if using Chrome OS is really necessary. But Google must also consider if the consumer market is ready for its platform. The tech lovers almost certainly are. But what about the mainstream consumer that doesn’t follow the tech space so closely? If they’re comfortable using Windows or Mac OS X, what would make them want to switch to Chrome OS, a new way of interacting with a computer? It’s a question that Google must answer before it sees its web-based operating system fail.
When Chrome OS launches, Google is assured that users will be able to access many of the programs they desire from the company’s online Chrome app store. However, the operating system won’t support Windows applications designed for the desktop, which means enterprise customers will be out. Plus, it might be a hard sell to get consumers to buy apps that won’t be as powerful as the desktop alternatives they already paid for. Simply put, when it comes to software compatibility, Chrome OS will fall short.
Chrome OS is designed to be a lightweight operating system at launch, potentially making it effective for customers using netbooks or even tablets. That’s fine. But the only issue for Google is that its other operating system, Android, is also capable of running quite well on those devices, which means the search giant could effectively be competing against itself. For its part, Google has said that it doesn’t view its two platforms as competitors. But will consumers? Time will tell.
As a web-based operating system, Chrome OS requires an always-connected experience for users. When using the computer at home, that probably won’t be such an issue for consumers with Wi-Fi. But when they venture out of the house, away from Wi-Fi, they will be forced to connect to the web via 3G, which of course, requires data plan charges. Now, more consumers than ever are paying for data plans nowadays, but that doesn’t make the additional cost any more acceptable to the average customer. Simply put, Chrome OS requires a monthly fee to work properly that many customers might take issue with.
Page: 1 2
New chapter for LastPass as it becomes an independent company to focus on cybersecurity, after…
US FCC seeks to ban Chinese telecom firms at centre of national security concerns from…
Two updates to Anthropic's AI chatbot Claude sees arrival of a new business-focused plan, as…
Most people in the United States view TikTok as a Chinese influence tool a poll…
UK regulator confirms it is investigating whether OnlyFans is doing enough to prevent children accessing…
Dismissed staff file complaint with a US labor board, and allege Google unlawfully terminated their…
View Comments
I think that the biggest plus point for the upcoming Chrome OS is its versatility for all kind of devices. However, it is sure to receive tough competition from current market holding OS's. But you never know,it can reverse the existing trend. Its left on the world to decide which one is better.
My friend tried the beta of chrome and told me that the whole os was basically ran from within the chrome browser.... should this not technically mean that all of the "applications" available to chrome os users will also run on both windows and os x if they are using the chrome browser and so defeating the need for a new os?
It is not just basically in the browser... Chrome OS, essentially, is just the browser. Therefore, yes, your point stands, everything that can be done on it will be and already is possible in any browser on any current machine (maybe with the exception of internet explorer of course). But I think alot of people are missing the point, the web can already do most of what you can do on your Windows, Mac or Linux OS already and is well on it's way to being able to do everything, with the release of HTML5 and CSS3 we will have a richer web with features such as hardware acceleration and offline storage.
The point, then, is not that is can do more than today's OSs but that it can do everything the same as you already can but without all of that clutter.
Think of your experience if, say, you want to boot up your PC to use Microsoft office, read your emails with Outlook and talk to your friends on Windows Live Messenger: you would press the power button, wait about 30 second minimum to be at your desktop, where you click on your applications, wait for them to load, log in, and then start work. all of which you could have alternatively done by opening your browser and using Google Docs, Gmail and Windows Live Messenger from in the browser.
On the other hand with Chome OS you would press the power button, wait about 5 seconds, log in, and all your applications are there, just a bookmark away.
Of course the web currently is not up to quite the same standard as the desktop OS yet but the beauty of it is that if you open a browser you have all of the most recent web sites and web applications that are available right now, so Chrome OS will evolve along with the web whatever direction it takes. You will be able to say goodbye to long boot times, viruses, paying an arm and a leg just to use the latest application that Microsoft have convinced you that you need that will take a few hours to install and then not work quite how you would like it.
So yes, it is not, in itself, any more functional than Windows, Mac or Linux but it has the potential to be, and it will always be the most up to date, the most secure and the cheapest way to use a computer for whatever you want to do on it.
Hope this helps to explain things.
Chrome OS isn't designed to compete with Windows or iOS, it is designed to run on a low power (and cost) machine that windows will not run on. it is basically a thin client. I don't believe it is supposed to replace the desktop, I think it is supposed to complement the desktop as a netbook/nettop device.
I work for a software company supplying enterprise level software, and we are constantly asked for web-based applications in place of desktop installs, an environment in which ChromeOs would be perfect.
The biggest downfall, in my opinion of ChromeOs is that it requires 24/7 online capability to be of any use and I think that data charges are too high and coverage and speed are too low for this to be a realistic possibility. I think that is why it is constantly delayed, they are waiting for the mobile ISP to get to the point where they can properly support a 100% online device.