Point six: It’s going to be free. So what’s the point? I mean I understand the idea of a loss leader. We don’t charge for iTunes. You’ll notice, however, that we do charge money for music and hardware. But how does this concept apply to Chrome OS? Somehow if you put out a new operating system you’ll get more people using the Internet and then you’ll be able to sell more of those little ads? Forgive me if I’m missing something here, but I don’t see how a free OS or a free browser helps Google. To put it another way, have you ever met anyone who said they’d really like to try out that Interwebs thing, but they’re just put off by the low-quality operating systems and browsers that are available at this time, so they’re sitting it out for now? Or like maybe they’re on the Internet now but they would just be soooo inclined to spend soooo much more time on the Web, and they’d be soooo much more likely to actually click on the ads, if the OS and browser made it somehow less onerous to, um, type in a URL and go to a page?

Clearly Google wants to maintain/extend their significant ad revenue stream. They are no angels to be sure, but everyone seems to want to project world-domination, must-kill-Microsoft intentions onto them. I like the fact that their projects benefit the consumer, and better the overall marketplace. Chrome (browser) helps drive the fast javascript environment; Android is helping to keep all of the smartphone os vendors on their toes, and so on. I don’t have to choose a Google product to benefit from that competition.

Will Chrome OS slay desktop windows? No. Are netbooks still overwhelmingly equipped with XP? Yes. But the margins are too small on netbooks and their future peers to charge much of anything for the OS. I’d be happy to run “Windows 7 Netbook edition” if it existed on one — but what has MS won if they give up their entire margin to keep that market share?

i really could see chrome OS take over this segment of the market that is currently dominated by mostly pirated/hacked windows XP.

Why?

If a user’s device is only capable of running web apps & your web app isn’t available, they’ll use your competitor’s web app. And, if enough people start using & liking your competitor’s web app, they may find little reason to use your web app if/when you make it available.

One of the major benefits of moving to web apps is that, without any porting effort, HTML5/JavaScript/CSS-based apps will run on:

- any OS (Windows, OS X, Ubuntu, ChromeOS, Android, …).
- any device type (smartphones, netbooks, notebooks, desktops, eReaders, photo frames, carputers, …).
- any CPU architecture (x86, ARM, MIPS, …).

Plus:

- web app improvements or bug fixes can be propagated to millions of users instantaneously.
- web apps can be offered for free/sale/subscription, to any user located anywhere in the world.

VERY exciting!