Google netbooks set to hit market
Google's Android and Chrome operating systems are set to hit the netbook market, but which one will emerge the victor?
Sitting on the Chrome OS side of the fence is Samsung, which according to Australian site Channel News has recently confirmed a netbook running Google's browser-based cloud operating system.
With a 10.1 inch LED-backlit display and around 12 hours of battery life, the N210-styled netbook, which is as yet unnamed by the company, will have a surprisingly impressive 2GB of RAM and at least 64GB of on-board storage - a huge amount of horsepower for a lightweight operating system designed to store all of its documents on Google's cloud servers.
So far the processor built in to the system isn't known, but it's thought that Samsung might be going down the ARM route to get the impressive 12 hour battery life - with rumours circulating it could even be Qualcomm's latest 1.5GHz Snapdragon chip under the hood. Sadly, we'll have to wait to find out: there's no official launch date as yet.
While Samsung might be concentrating on the netbook-oriented Chrome, other manufacturers continue to attempt to shoe-horn Google's Android - originally developed as a smartphone platform - onto ever larger devices, with the latest design coming from Hewlett Packard. According to V3.co.uk, the Compaq AirLife 100 will have a similar 10.1" screen, a Snapdragon processor, but a mere 16GB of solid-state storage on-board. Unlike the Samsung device, the AirLife 100 comes with on-board GPS.
With a 12-hour battery life to rival the Chrome OS-based device from Samsung, it'll be interesting to see which of the two devices succeeds in the market - or even if consumers can be convinced to give up Windows on their netbook.
Which do you think is the most suited to netbook use - Android or Chrome? Would you personally prefer a more desktop-oriented Linux distribution such as Ubuntu? Perhaps you're of the opinion that it's Windows or nothing? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
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Discuss in the forums Replyyou could argue that android is just a glorified smartphone OS
Every netbook sold with a linux distro has not gone on to success. As soon as they release the same model but with a Windows OS it sells a hell of alot more.
The smart thing Apple has done is keep the visual appearance of iPhoneOS with the updated iPad version. Non-techsavvy users love this because it's not another device they have to learn to use.
Back on topic, regarding the CPU, I never knew that it could make such a big difference to battery life. I always thought the LCD screen was the biggest limiting factor.
This could, and more than likely will, split the sales of each OS and if they come to merge them like they said they more than likely would at some point, surly that would just create customer confusion for the people who are non-techsavvy users.
Open standards = good for the consumer.
I would not be able to just drop Windows however, or Ubuntu that I'm currently dual booting with. But to enable Chromium to boot from hitting the "Dell Media" button instead of the power button would be very useful. Unfortunately, the Chrome OS is still not ready for Main stream use due to a lack of driver support, which is a shame.
thats because the general consumer are idiots when it comes to PCs.
95% of consumers couldnt tell you the difference between a hard drive and a cpu. FACT.
I thought all smart phones are net enable?
They could just as easily have made a ChromeOS with Windows at the base (just put chrome as the shell instead of Windows Explorer).