Google Unveils First Chrome OS Computer (PICTURES)

(AP/HUFFINGTON POST) SAN FRANCISCO — Google Inc. is postponing the market debut of the first computers running on its highly anticipated operating system by about six months to give its engineers more time to fine-tune the software.

Under a new timetable announced Tuesday, Google expects the first machines powered by the operating system to go on sale in the middle of next year. The company previously promised to have its Chrome operating system ready by the end of this year.

Google is recruiting consumers and a handful of businesses to test a "very limited" number of laptops using the operating system, which revolves around the company's 2-year-old Chrome Web browser. The unbranded computers, called Cr-48, will be shipped out to people chosen to participate in the pilot program by the end of January (Apply here).

The first Chrome OS laptops will be made by Acer Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. Google said the manufacturers will determine the prices of the first Chrome OS machines next year.

The Chrome OS computers will have a 12.1 inch display screen and standard-sized keyboard, but no hard drive. That means the Chrome OS computers will need online access to run more programs. Google is teaming up with Verizon Communications to sell Internet access over Verizon's wireless network when there is no other way to connect to the Web. The data plans will cost as little as $9.99 per month and won't require a long-term commitment.

Google also unveiled a new store for selling applications that run on the Web, the Chrome Web Store. That store opened Monday with about 500 applications, hitting the end-of-the-year deadline Google set when it announced the idea in May.

See pictures of the Cr-48 Chrome netbook and Chrome OS below, via Google.

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Comments

[nongrata]

11:16 AM on 12/16/2010

that is dam scary to use that computer. everything you type in there probably goes straight to the cia

[GomboMan]

12:37 PM on 12/09/2010

It's an interesting idea. I like the cloud aspect of my Google phone— no worries about backing up, losing contacts, calendar or voice mails, etc. I wonder how well it'll translate to a full-size device.

[Craig 212]

12:28 AM on 12/09/2010

Is the Chrome browser any good? I'm not too pleased with Firefox lately.

[lifeofthemind]

10:03 AM on 12/09/2010

If you're not paranoid about google knowing everything about you, go for it. It's so fast, slick, and robust. The only problem is that it tracks everything for google.... even if you simply start typing something into the search bar they will see what you typed even if you never hit enter. Which reminds me... the search/address bar is amazing! i haven't been to a search engine website or even typed a full web address since i started using chrome.

[GomboMan]

12:34 PM on 12/09/2010

I love it. Firefox has been a big ball of bugs masquerading as a browser for a couple of years now.

[Tleilaxu Ghola]

09:50 PM on 12/08/2010

This should have been a tablet like the iPad. That is the growing market, netbooks are declining heavy.

[kcinpa]

01:53 PM on 12/08/2010

Has anyone here tried to use the Chrome browser for any length of time? It absolutely stinks!

[Rodger leMonde]

04:21 PM on 12/08/2010

Not my opinion. I love it. Only keep IE around for IE dependent web sites.

[kcinpa]

04:53 PM on 12/08/2010

Keeps crashing for me. I had to switch back to FF...

[hopefull2008]

12:21 AM on 12/09/2010

What .. ? It's by far the best already and it keeps improving .

[Amit Nagpal]

01:15 PM on 12/08/2010

Google.. get a frickin industrial designer.. oh wait u only make software for fugly machines. *Visits Apple Store* - 1000$ for a 64gb macbook air?? ok ok god will punish u later but right now will u take cash or credit card?

[lifeofthemind]

10:05 AM on 12/09/2010

that was worth a chuckle!

[Ahmed Ahmad]

10:50 AM on 12/08/2010

So you tell me that you can't produce a more appealing design than this brick looking style????? It looks like a laptop that I used more than 10 years ago. That's sad...

[M Jeffrey]

10:08 AM on 12/08/2010

No way would I buy a computor with no hard drive.

[fla kracker]

10:13 AM on 12/08/2010

Hard drives are so 20th century SSD is the way to go try it and you'll be sold I have a mac mini with a 250 GB SSD amazing

[ClassicLeft]

10:46 AM on 12/08/2010

I think you've missed the point.. They don't mean it will have SSD or any other HD alternative. This is supposed to be a cloud computer. No local storage.

[ware]

01:46 PM on 12/09/2010

laptop with 250gb SSD? you spent at least $2000 on that machine. We all want to keep the economy rolling but this way too much by my standards. I just got an Acer laptop with 500GB hdd, Intel I5,NVidia with 512K, and 6Gb Ram with $649 :)

[Plissken]

10:05 AM on 12/08/2010

Not so sure this is going anywhere. No hardrive? Seems kind of pointless. Sounds like another version of the I-Pad.

[Goff256]

10:41 AM on 12/08/2010

It's meant to run with a SSD, which runs faster than a normal Hard Drive. It's meant to be used for what a netbook is meant to be used for...

[ClassicLeft]

10:46 AM on 12/08/2010

I think you've missed the point.. They don't mean it will have SSD or any other HD alternative. This is supposed to be a cloud computer. No local storage.

[tleb]

09:43 AM on 12/08/2010

Google is sooo cool... can't wait to see whats next everyday.

[ClassicLeft]

08:39 AM on 12/08/2010

After Android's $100 dollars tablets why do they need netbooks? Google has been holding off on the Android Tablet support but they've shot themselves in the foot. Android will be the OS of choice for under $200 devices.

Tablets already ate a big chunk of the netbook market and as the tablet platform matures they'll eat part of the laptop market. Netbooks are a transitional technology. They've lasted less than 7 years and are already in seep decline.

Unless Google os moves to be a better linux version than Ubuntu distro and take some of the laptop market, they have absolutely no market for it.

[jsarets]

09:43 AM on 12/08/2010

Everybody here is forgetting that businesses want their employees to have laptops, but they don't want them carrying around confidential data or installing random software.

The prime market for netbooks is corporate thin clients. Tablets are not always appropriate for this market. The trouble is that past efforts to deploy thin clients have not been executed very well. Google is well-positioned to deploy a thin client architecture that works for businesses.

ChromeOS is not intended to compete with MacBook Air or iPad in the consumer market, at least not at first or as a primary focus. It's intended to compete with Thinkpad. The point is to make it less expensive for employers to give their workforce mobile connectivity and to do so with better management of client software configurations and confidential/shared data.

[ClassicLeft]

10:41 AM on 12/08/2010

What other way to store confidential information than online right? And as if the "cloud" has never let you down.
I don't see how successful would be a portable computer that needs to be connected to the internet to work. 3g and 4g have a really poor coverage it fails all the time. And depending on hotspots is just not dependable enough.

Maybe they are a few years ahead of time. But as I remember we've moved away from dumb terminals 20 years ago. Today you have so much processing power on your laptop that it is already really cheap to make netbooks disposable for corporations. They are already being sold for $200. How much would these dumb laptops cost? $50? $20?

There are already serious cryptography tools like truecrypt you can safely lose your laptop without any worries.

Again, the whole "cloud" computing idea has being pushed for many years by the owners of big data centers like Google and IBM. But the industry still isn't buying it.

Next time you are trying to get a GPS location on your smartphone and you go through a 3G blindspot, think of how cloud computing is still not ready for prime time.

[alexgamble]

08:38 AM on 12/08/2010

This...is ugly. It looks like a laptop used on a 90s sitcom.

[pcpc]

08:32 AM on 12/08/2010

Black is so 1990s! A laptop without a hard drive still looks so bulky! Very sad...

[ssa5]

08:30 AM on 12/08/2010

Looking at this product I just have to think; There is a sucker born every minute.

[uncc49er]

08:16 AM on 12/08/2010

looks ugly. Can not beat Macbook.