Google hosting Chrome Event December 7, likely unveiling Chrome OS netbook

December 4, 2010 By Frank Kobola

A rumored Google event on December 7 could herald the long-awaited Google Chrome OS netbook, but the initial launch might be smaller than expected.

Google is reportedly hosting an event that promises “exciting news about Chrome” and, according to Engadget, that means an official unveiling of its Chrome OS netbook. Earlier rumors of a launch in November have already fallen through, but a launch in just days would coincide with Google’s latest update to Chrome.

The netbook itself purports to have an interesting list of features, most notably a Cloud-based operating system, and according to early reports, the netbook can boot up in mere seconds. Interestingly enough, Google doesn’t seem poised to flood the market with the device; on the contrary, the rumor is that only 65,000 of the first iteration of the device will be made available to their “close friends and family.” If this is true, that could certainly raise some eyebrows, especially considering the chunk of the market Apple and Samsung now have. The longer Google waits, the more of a handicap it may be imposing on itself when the netbook does finally launch. However, Google may already have lost.

Google Chrome 8.0 was pushed through with little fanfare, but the added inclusion of a Web Store (essentially Google’s App Store or Marketplace) delivers more circumstantial evidence in support of the netbook announcement. It has long been announced that this Web Store will allow app vendors to create content not only for the Chrome web browser, but the operating system as well. With nothing but (substantial) rumor to go on, it’s too soon to tell whether any of this will be enough for Google to distinguish its device from competitors. However, if Google does have an ace up its sleeve, it appears we’ll find out this coming Tuesday.

Showing 17 comments

bloodelf at 7:03pm 4th December 2010 Screw Google on the 7th, ZOMG CATACLYSM is released on the 7th.
Jason Bourne at 5:42pm 4th December 2010 wish they were announcing gingerbread
ignasty at 1:58pm 4th December 2010 Why December 7th of all dates?
1. cjl at 2:23pm 4th December 2010 its the bomb........ sneak attack sinking several shops they hope.
andyoo at 1:04pm 4th December 2010 more google beta ware...just like all their softwares. betas until they can't make money and kill support.
@jabailo at 12:30pm 4th December 2010 More Google vaporware.
geek at 12:00pm 4th December 2010 If the price point is attractive it will sell
fmc at 12:00pm 4th December 2010 As long as Windows has overwhelmingly device support from manufacturers it will dominate. That's a big plus, at least to those of use who expect good support for peripherals like (for example) printers and cameras, to mean plug and play. We don't want to waste our time editing obscure scripts (which are different for Linux Mint, Ubuntu , Mandriva and Chrome). And then searching for an answer as to why it doesn't work, then posting a cry for help to the various Linux help forum, and dealing with the multiplicity of answers. Been there, done that. While I'll use Linux when it's convenient (as I am now), it's just not ready to replace Windows.
1. bigpicture at 3:07pm 4th December 2010 Had exactly those same experiences. Have been looking for an alternate to Windows OS that "just works". Over the years: Video card drivers, then printer drivers, and most recently wireless issues. Until the last couple of years never was able to set Num Lock as the default boot etc. etc. The archaic X Window was partly responsible for all this, I am hoping that Ubuntu Unity and Chrome OS will solve this and just bypass the Gnome and KDE crowd. The "user experience" is very important (which is what appears on their screen) the Gnome and KDE interface crowd don't seem to understand this. Much as I dislike MS, I got to say that the W7 interface is leading the field, possibly second only to Apple.
wn8 at 11:50am 4th December 2010 Frank: you managed to use "Certainly" and "may" in the same sentence, amazing. Are there no editors at dt to watch the word smithing?
1. Mir at 12:29pm 4th December 2010 Lol! That was hilarious.
2. @angeredlion at 2:16pm 4th December 2010 Yeah - Certainly, Google may already have lost. That's elite journalism from digital trends for you.
3. Frank_Kobola at 5:29pm 4th December 2010 Nice catch. I wound up editing two sentences together and didn't realize I did that. I know better than to interject modals when dealing in the absolute. If I could, I'd give you a high five.
4. titties at 10:09pm 4th December 2010 wn8 is not titties
5. super titties at 10:11pm 4th December 2010 and wn8 should have used a semicolon before amazing and not a comma. Butthole.
sean vanity at 11:40am 4th December 2010 Next to Linux Mint, Ubuntu , Mandriva and Chrome, Windows is virtual.... history.
1. WolfHawke at 12:12am 5th December 2010 Only in among non-corporate US and European hypergeeks. The rest of the world is likely to remain mostly Microsoft-centric for the foreseeable future. Take it from someone who lives in "the rest of the world".