Signs are beginning to indicate, as Google I/O fast approaches, that Chrome OS may make a stable debut at the conference. I/O is a vast annual conference for the company to launch new products and inform consumers and manufacturers of upcoming matters.
Chrome OS, rumoured for a long time and eventually launched as a beta product for selected devices, is positioned in a strange way as a direct competitor of Android. However, Chrome OS has suffered numerous delays, the cloud-heavy operating system originally looking to launch 6 months ago. Developers have since received copies of demo hardware, but the product itself has been nowhere to be seen for consumers.
I/O will definitely be showcasing the launch of Google’s new music service, which is directly tied to Android, making the second day a likely suspect for the launch of Chrome OS. Samsung also plan to hold a ‘mystery event’ on the evening of day two, rumoured to support the new operating system. In fact, ‘Stable’ now appears as an option in Chrome OS’ latest builds, which is almost certainly version 11.
As the first round of products will inevitably gear up for launch, this version will be the one featured at launch. The extremely light OS at 1/60th the size of Windows 7 runs entirely from a browser window, offering a large number of cloud-based features like Google Docs, Google Apps and Cloud Print, most of which are available on Chrome for desktop PCs and Macs already. However, the future may begin to look more like Chrome OS as the Internet becomes an always-on option. The 15 second boot time of the OS certainly has its place for light application use.
