While Google’s Chrome OS has been commonly associated as a better platform for netbook computers, it now appears that the company intends to butt heads with Apple on their latest turf, the iPad.
TechCrunch has posted a series of mockups from the official Chromium OS website which clearly show the fledgling operating system running on some form of tablet. The mockups are not officially Google’s, but they were created by Glen Murphy, Google Chrome’s designer. TechCrunch believes there’s “a good chance that the final version of Chrome OS will resemble this.”
The mockups may very well be another shot across the bow between Google and Apple, who have had an increasingly tense relationship in recent months. Apple CEO Steve Jobs was rumored to state during an employee-only town hall meeting after the iPad announcement that Google intends to “kill the iPhone -- we won’t let them.”
It now appears that tablets may be the next front on the escalating skirmish, with Chrome OS presumably jumping from simply netbooks -- a market that Apple has completely dismissed -- to an iPad-style form.
“Now, it remains to be seen if people who buy an iPad will do so instead of buying a netbook,” TechCrunch’s MG Siegler writes. “And as Jobs’ comments on stage on Wednesday made abundantly clear, that’s Apple’s idea too. In their eyes, you shouldn’t buy a cheap, underpowered PC, you should buy an iPad, their anti-netbook.
“Google, which plans to release its first Chrome OS-based netbooks in time for the holiday season next year, can’t like that plan too much,” Siegler continues. “They have promised that netbooks that run Chrome OS will be better than current netbooks because they’re dictating certain minimum requirements (such as big keyboards) to manufacturing partners. But Chrome OS netbooks won’t be able to match the sex appeal of the iPad’s multi-touch screen.”
That is, until Google brings their own tablet to life… and there’s already a mockup video on YouTube showing what that experience might be like.
(Images courtesy of TechCrunch)
