Oh boy, is Google sure on a roll. Mere weeks after the announcement of the Google Phone, the Android-powered Nexus One, and the Google Netbook running (also recently-announced) Google Chrome OS, rumors began flying of another hardware product running Chrome OS. And this time it’s a tablet computer.
Australian news site SmartHouse says that it seems like Google is just going head-on with Apple’s tablet, rumored to be named the iSlate. Apparently, Google has been working with HTC on a touch-screen tablet computer for around 18 months already. If you remember, HTC is also the one developing the Nexus One.
According to Pete Cashmore of Mashable:
[T]he device might equally prove a threat to Microsoft: getting Google Chrome OS into consumer’s hands is key to the operating system’s success.
Skeptics might argue that Google will never promote a tablet computer of its own: that would endanger its relationships with other hardware makers. And yet the Nexus One proves that Google very much will tread on toes if the move makes strategic sense.
As I’ve said time and time again, I’m not impressed with Google’s Chrome OS. I do admit that Google has the cloud that Jolicloud – a much more capable cloud-based linux distro – can only dream of having. This is the one time we can actually see a linux distro becoming a real threat, not only to the direct competitor iSlate (which will reportedly run full Mac OS X) and most especially Windows. But Google has to really do something about Chrome OS’s UI, because it’s not exactly my cup of tea.
What do you think? Are you going for the Google Tablet or the Apple iSlate? Yeah, I know it’s silly talking about two theoretical products, but I’d like to hear your opinions just the same.