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Chrome OS will succeed – in your bathroom

You may wonder what world do the pundits live in – it’s not the same one occupied by you and me:

[W]hat about my son who is in high school. By the time Chrome OS comes along in big numbers he’ll be in college. Why take a $1,000 computer to class? Couldn’t he do everything he needs to do on a low-cost computer that’s lightweight, replaceable, uses low power, and just uses the web? Absolutely!

I suppose if he pursued a degree in feminist studies, yeah, maybe a Google OS (read: online apps exclusively) could carry him towards it. Last time I heard, Mathematica wasn’t on the Web.

Scoble says that Google OS is NOT about killing Microsoft. He predicts a new range of utility computers you’ll put in the kitchen and the bathroom. But would you take that kind of device to college? Other than amuse you in the dorm bathroom?

Google wants to eliminate the need for desktop OS, or at least make it irrelevant. They can’t sell ads through desktop apps. But since Microsoft’s dominance on PCs isn’t any less absolute than it was 10 years ago, Google has to invent its own market to compete outside the browser.

Bathroom PCs: why not; for $50 or less, I’d take a couple. There, Google OS may have already won since there’s nobody else competing there. Displacing Windows on college students laptops? I don’t think so.

November 21, 2009 | Filed Under Rants, Web 

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2 Responses to “Chrome OS will succeed – in your bathroom”

  1. Tsahi Levent-Levi on November 21st, 2009

    :-)
    The thing is, we’re moving towards cloud computing. With every day that passes, another application is available through the web, making yet another application we used to install on our PC irrelevant.
    How long will it take for all your current work to be something you can do online? Mathematica seems a relatively easy thing to move to the cloud…
    Tsahi

  2. Tom on November 21st, 2009

    Thanks for stopping by. I cannot see “ALL” of my work moving online anytime soon. Only those things that are purely online do so; Office, graphics editing, coding is still massively more convenient and usable on the desktop.

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