This rather assumes that the browser could not be improved upon.
I kind of feel like Tom... Chrome OS is actually what Android will turn into, not the other way around. The downloadable app paradigm is working fine for Apple, but it's been pretty miserable for Google. Their marketplace is pretty atrocious, and the method of selling them has been a constant headache.
I think Chrome OS is a stopgap to an OS where the browser doesn't appear as a bunch of tabs, but as something that probably looks more like iOS anyway. I think it shows Google thinking a little too small and releasing too early. Had it baked a couple of years, and it became branded as Android 4 or something ("Android... everywhere"), I think that would have been better. I wonder if they're not launching early in order to push things like Web Print, so by the time they are ready to do something groundbreaking, the technology is already in place.
I kind of feel like Tom... Chrome OS is actually what Android will turn into, not the other way around. The downloadable app paradigm is working fine for Apple, but it's been pretty miserable for Google. Their marketplace is pretty atrocious, and the method of selling them has been a constant headache.
I think Chrome OS is a stopgap to an OS where the browser doesn't appear as a bunch of tabs, but as something that probably looks more like iOS anyway. I think it shows Google thinking a little too small and releasing too early. Had it baked a couple of years, and it became branded as Android 4 or something ("Android... everywhere"), I think that would have been better. I wonder if they're not launching early in order to push things like Web Print, so by the time they are ready to do something groundbreaking, the technology is already in place.