Google Chrome OS-based netbook tech specs are out
London - Believe it or not - the tech specs of the rumoured Google Chrome OS-based netbook are already out and by the sound of it, the netbook looks to me like a high performance machine. — Even as rumours grow that Google …
Context & Ripple Effects
The specs leak lands five months after Google framed Chrome OS as maybe not a PC OS at all — a browser-first system aimed at the netbook category rather than the desktop. The new wrinkle is that the machine described appears to be Google-branded, meaning Google may ship reference hardware of its own rather than leaving the device entirely to OEMs.
It also arrives amid a cluster of confirmed Google moves in late December 2009: real-time streams from Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace folded into search results, a new 'updates' option, and the Caffeine indexing overhaul in preparation — all pointing toward an OS whose value proposition is speed of access to Google's own web infrastructure.
First-order effects
- If the rumored high-performance Google-branded netbook is real, Google moves from OS licensor to device maker, competing directly with any OEM partner it expects to adopt Chrome OS.
Second-order effects
- A Google-controlled device would let the company tune hardware around its confirmed Caffeine indexing and real-time search stack, making raw web-service performance — not local specs — the selling point that rival netbook makers have to match.
Third-order effects
- The pattern points toward margins migrating from device hardware to the complementary web services an OS exists to reach: whoever controls the browser-first platform captures the value that traditional notebook makers used to price into the box.
The trend: Netbooks are becoming thin clients for cloud platforms, with platform owners like Google willing to build their own hardware when OEMs move too slowly.