Chrome OS and New Digital Landscape: A Perspective

Last week there were some interesting developments within the Digital platform landscape. Google made its Chrome OS available for the open source community on 19th of November with an official release planned in the second half of 2010.

What is Chrome OS?

Chrome OS is Google’s foray into the emerging paradigm of cloud computing. Cloud computing is a general term for any service which is delivered over the internet as a hosted service.  These services can be divided into three categories: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).

Chrome OS which lies within SaaS category is an open source operating system based upon Linux OS to work exclusively for internet based applications with the only objective to make browsing and day to day tasks simpler for users. Because of the simplicity of usage the Google engineers will be able to focus on usability rather than on compatibility. Google has announced that Chrome OS will be available on selected Net-books or Tablets which means less compatibility issues and fewer headaches for engineers. By restricting hardware choices Google will be able to focus on adding functionality to the applications rather than focussing on the ever growing support issues.

With Chrome OS Google is challenging the way people use computers and internet today. With a Net-book or Tablet users will be able to stay online all the time just like a mobile phone. This will be made possible with the wider acceptance of inbuilt SIM cards for mobile network browsing (some vendors are already offering laptops with this feature) as well as general availability of WI-FI networks.

These devices will use Google’s cloud services to store all the data on the Google’s data centres rather than on a hard disk. Apart from the security and privacy issues, this approach eliminates the costs and complexity of evaluating, buying, configuring and managing all the hardware and software needed for various day to day uses.

Although quality of Internet access may be a problem but the past limitations on internet or network speeds are no longer there or soon will disappear. Globally Internet speeds have increased rapidly over the last decade and a growing number of users in developed world use a very fast internet connection. In Australia Telstra is already rolling out 100 mbps broadband speeds to its exchanges and whether or not Telstra is part of NBN the network speeds will increase significantly in next few years. Recognising this global phenomenon, Google wants to change the rules of the game which currently see majority of users around the world use a PC or Mac based computer or laptop for daily use.

More and more people are using Internet for personal, social and business purposes and a large number of interactions are within email, web browsing and social networking usage categories. These users do not need a powerful client to do all this as evident by the growing market demand for Netbooks which were unknown a couple of years ago. Realising this trend Google is trying to create a new market segment within the operating system market which is currently dominated by Microsoft. If successful it can be very lucrative for Google as it does not have a stake in the current market of operating systems. However by changing the rules of the game Google will have a first mover’s advantage and will be able to take a big share of this market segment based upon its brand equity and the ease of use of its offering. Other companies will follow suit but will be playing a catch-up against the innovation and resources of Google.

Google’s desire to capture the Internet market, continuously innovating and introducing new markets is not new. A difficult proposition for competitors but bodes well for the users. Google is forcing everyone to innovate; and innovate at a rapid pace. This fierce competition will give birth to many new products and overall everyone will be better off in the form of the availability of better tools to drive productivity or lower prices or free services.

Microsoft which currently dominates the market for operating systems, office applications and Internet browser is not oblivious of this invasion by Google into its territory. It recognises the potential of this new market (i.e. cloud computing and SaaS) and simplified computing with a simple OS. Just a day before the chrome OS announcement, Microsoft revealed the IE9 beta for developers. This version promises better conformance to standards, responsiveness and more importantly in my point of view ability for developers to directly access the graphics processor capabilities from within the Internet Explorer. Not only this last feature enables the developers to write faster and more sophisticated programs within the IE eco-system, it also provides a possible platform for Microsoft to counter the threat of Chrome OS. By introducing its own Internet Explorer based operating system Microsoft can compete against Google in this market. The cost of not doing that or taking the threat posed by ChromeOS lightly is not an option for Microsoft. In the past it has seen the erosion of its market share in the Internet Browser and Mobile OS markets due to its sleepy approach.