- Late But Could Prove Deadly
- Chrome: More Than a PC, Less Than a PC
- Web-Based Computing Arrives
The ground beneath the market for portable computing devices trembled this week when two wealthy and powerful companies made announcements:
- Google is directly challenging Microsoft and the dominance of Windows in the operating systems market with Chrome, which Google expects to win the day in cloud books, netbooks and eventually desktop PCs. Microsoft is currently having one of its best runs ever due to Windows 7’s reliability and consumer acceptance but looks very vulnerable in smartphones and tablets.
- Intel is directly challenging ARM-designed processors with a new processor it said will appear on smartphones in the second half of 2011. Intel has long trailed badly in chips for smartphones and is currently a distant second to ARM in tablets.
Both announcements were expected.
Cloudbooks Arrive
Google for the first time publicly demonstrated two laptops, from Samsung and Acer, running the company’s new-fangled Web-focused Chrome operating system. No hardware prices were announced, but Chrome PCs are expected to sell for less than traditional PCs because they use less hardware.
Instantly-on and -online Chrome computers are designed to run Web-based applications and use Web-based storage. Google believes that Chrome will entice software companies to develop a new generation of Web-based software for it much as tablets have done.
“We’re delivering nothing but the Web,” said Google VP Sundar Pichai, who headed the Chrome development team, at the launch.
Pichai said people now spend most of their computer time on the Web.
“Cloud computing will essentially define computing as we all know it,” said CEO Eric Schmidt.
Chrome is free to developers and equipment makers.
Google sees the future as cloud computing and says Windows-based PCs do not efficiently address that market. Most Windows PCs it said are designed around local computing. They are overbuilt and too expensive with such things as large hard drives for a future when the speed of Internet access is more important than the capacity of the disk.
Google makes money by selling ads and online services. It wants the ads it sells to run on every Internet-connected consumer product from TV set to smartphone to tablet to PC. It assures itself that it can run its ad network when the devices use one of its OSes, Android and now Chrome, each of which comes with its browser and ad network.
It’s a business model that Microsoft would find difficult to match with Windows.
The only viable competitor to Google in smartphones, tablets and handheld devices appears to be Apple, which does not license its OS to other companies. The OS market for portable devices appears about to become what the early days were in PCs but with Google taking the part of Microsoft.
Google is finding that developing and honing an operating system is harder and takes longer than it thought. The Acer and Samsung boxes are expected in mid-2011, later than by the end of 2010 as Google had previously said.
Pichai said other companies are also building Chrome-based devices. Hardware makers may be impetuously rushing into the cloud book market because they don’t want to get left out as they did by the iPad in the tablet market.
Competitor Microsoft charges a per license fee for Windows, the Windows tax as someone called it.
Google is setting up a program that will give out pre-release hardware and Chrome OS to users, developers, schools and businesses in order to complete product development. “We’re not done yet, but Chrome OS is at the stage where we need feedback from real users,” said Pichai in a blog.
Google has said Chrome is aimed at devices that have external keyboards like laptops. They will compete against both tablets and netbooks initially and Google has said it expects Chrome to appear on desktop PCs in the future.
Google said it is working with Verizon Wireless to offer free wireless broadband that allows Chrome users to send and receive up to 100Mb of data monthly. Plans with higher quantities will start at $9.99 per month, Google said.
Simultaneously Google launched an online app market called Chrome Web that will have apps from news organizations, game makers, e-commerce companies and other apps developers, both for free and for a fee. It said Electronic Arts and Amazon will have apps.
To get developers interested in producing apps for devices that don’t yet exist, Google said its cut of apps will be 5% of revenue, compared to the 30% that Android and Apple app stores get.
The Chrome Web store will, of course, offer Google’s apps such as Google Docs and Google Maps.
Google wants to go after the corporate market too. It demonstrated Chrome running Microsoft software such as Excel through the Chrome browser. Citrix, whose gotomypc online software lets anyone use their computers remotely, said Chrome users can operate their Windows software and access their data at the office from any Chrome device.
Google said Chrome offers security called sandboxing that prevents applications from interfering with each other.
Still missing from the prototype software are offline storage and printing. They’ll come, Google said.
Google said corporate IT executives have been asking about Chrome because they are interested in reduced costs plus increased manageability and security.
If Chrome works well and delivers the features Google promises, then it could become a major factor in the PC market.
Only Linux has challenged Windows directly, and although it has done well, it never succeeded to the extent its backers hoped, mostly in servers and especially not in desktop and portable PCs. The market found it lacking in not having a compelling graphical user interface, third party software and Windows compatibility. Google could do well in those areas. Google has shown by the sales of Android smartphones that it can produce an attractive graphical user interface. The company is making a concerted effort and offering financial inducements to attract third party developers.
Google VP of engineering Andy Rubin this week said on a blog that the company is activating 300,000 Android phones per day. In October Apple chief Steve Jobs said about 270,000 iOS devices were being activated daily.
Microsoft appears especially vulnerable in tablets, smartphones and netbooks, as shown by Apple’s dominance with the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. That leaves the portable computing market up in the air.
Let’s see. Google dominates in search, mapping, online videos and seems about to in smartphones. This week it also entered the eBook market. So, why not? It has the money, expertise and industry clout, but operating systems, as Google has already discovered, are not easy to do.
Microsoft won’t go quietly. Its Windows 7 is having quite a run in the PC market. It has a very big bank account and a large installed base of users. Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer may not be the best at that vision thing but Microsoft has in the past shown both persistence and resilience.
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