Get ready for Chrome OS

Wednesday 03 November

Tempted by a Chrome OS netbook?

As if there weren’t enough mobile operating systems to choose from already, we’re now hearing that netbooks running Google’s Chrome OS will soon be fighting their way onto the already crowded shelves before the year is out.

The existence of Chrome OS is certainly nothing new, and in fact to the consumer it arguably amounts to little more than a practical extension of the Chrome web browser together with most of Google’s other software bits and pieces tied together in an official bundle.

Reliable Taiwanese tech site DigiTimes is reporting that the first Chrome “smartbooks” from the likes of Acer, HP and Google itself are due to launch before the end of the year, running the now familiar ARM-based CPUs.

Now Google might have had its Chrome OS plans set in place as much as a year ago, but with the iPad dominating 95 per cent of tablet sales, and driving netbook makers to either lower their prices or get out the game altogether, we have to ask if there’s really room for yet another mobile OS scrapping for our attention.

That doesn’t mean we think Chrome’s arrival is a bad thing, but alongside iOS, Android, MeeGo, Windows Phone 7, Windows 7 itself, BlackBerry OS 6 and probably a few more we’re forgetting about, it certainly has its work cut out.

What do you think – does Chrome OS stand a chance, or will it flounder as yet another mobile OS also-ran? Let us know in the comments below.