Android Netbooks Coming; Google Unintentionally Competes with Own Chromebooks

[dgstorm]

A bit of news coming from DigiTimes suggests that soon ASUS, Samsung, Toshiba and Acer, are working to release Android based netbooks and notebooks. This will end up putting Google in the unenviable position of competing with itself in its Chromebook market. Although the cloud-based Chromebooks are technically a different animal than an Android OS based notebook, widespread popularity for the Android OS could end up hurting Google's bottom line with the Chromebooks. Google's vision of the future is that all mobile computing will eventually go cloud-based, but it would be ironic to find their own technology, namely Android, slowing the evolution toward that eventuality. Ultimately, the future may prove that Google was simply wise to "hedge their bets" and move in multiple directions. Only time will tell.

Source: ChromeForums.net via PhanDroid and DigiTimes

 

[johnomaz]

I dunno, i still see the ChromeBook as the leader. Android is amazing but the lackluster sales of the tablets (compared to iPads) is kind of a key point. I think the ChromeBook would be more geared towards students that need something inexpensive and dependable (files sync to the cloud instead of stored on the worskstation).

 

[Stelv]

Well Chromebooks as of now are not inexpensive. You can buy a lot of laptops that are less expensive than the current Chromebooks, that offer a lot more. Chromebooks are very limited. Just buy a pc and pit Google Chrome on it...homemade Chromebook.

 

[bazar6]

I was wondering why they were putting out ChromeOS when Android was becoming so popular. Why not just brand ChromeOS as Android, make it like 4/5.0 for netbooks like they did when they put Android on tablets, that way they don't have competing products, they just have the hardware manufacturers competing against themselves.

 

[GrillMouster]

With all the mobile carriers dropping unlimited data plans in favor of ridiculously expensive tiered plans, I don't see the value in a cloud-based notebook. Of course, it would work in my own home where there's wifi, but there's not wifi everywhere I go. There are wifi hotspots out there but they're not EVERYWHERE, and in some places they're incredibly slow, crowded, and not secure.

 

[XnTriumph]

Why compete with itself? I've seen tours of the ChromeOS it looks nice but it's limited and it doesn't have much to it. I would just buy a PC. Also Android on a computer doesn't seem good, not even on a desktop, not even on a notebook, not even on a netbook. Android is an OS for Mobile devices like phones and tablets, not computers. Although we never thought of Android on tablets before Honeycomb came out. It might be good, but most likely not.

 

[chuckz28]

I thought to myself from the beginning of when I understood what chrome OS is, that it would fail. This reinforces that. They should have used those resources to add to android development. The majority of people I know do not trust the cloud enough by a large margin. In fact I don't even myself. With hackers become more and more prevalent especially. I like to keep my data in my house. Eventually it will become more trusted but I think it is ahead of it's time.

Plus as someone else mentioned the bandwidth issue. Becoming increasingly dependent on bandwidth as everyone is seems to be straining networks and increasing costs. Not only is the wireless carriers putting the clamp down, wired home Internet speeds haven't caught up across the country compared to other countries. Many have less than broadband as the only option. Since the FCC changed the definition of broadband to have a minimum of 4mb/s down, I don't even fall in the broadband category and these frustrations will steer me far away from a network based OS. Shelf chrome os for 10 years and it would have a higher success rate as people warm up to cloud and the network expands to handle the traffic.