As we wrap up what has been an eventful 2009, I thought that now would be a great time for some reflection on where Chrome OS is going and some of the big questions that do not have concrete answers yet. An official release by Google is at least six months away for Chromium but even so that leaves a lot left to the imagination at this point. So here is a review what are the biggest issues relating to the Chrome operating system and my best attempt to try to explore them. Enjoy and here’s to a great 2010!

Who will manufacture the GoogleBook?

A look at the third quarter 2009 market share for netbook manufacturers puts Acer out in front with a 38.8% piece of the pie. But Asus is not far behind at around 30%.  I don’t believe that a brand like HP or Dell would want to slap a Google logo on hardware that they’ve designed, so my bet right now is that Asus is Google’s HTC in the netbook market. However, a contract supplier such as Foxconn or Flextronics could offer a sweeter deal and have no qualms about branding issues.

Will it be subsidized?

As we’ve already seen with Google’s Nexus One Android Phone pricing, subsidizing and partnering with a wireless provider looks like the best path for the GoogleBook. It doesn’t look like Google wants to eat any cost trying to release this product, and why should they? There should be enough hype prior to an official launch. And don’t forget that open source developers will have had their hands on Chromium, release their own builds. This project is starting to mirror in some degree the path that Android took to completely blowing up this year, and I mean that in a good way.

Will it be secure?

It’s going to need to be. McAfee has already reported Chrome OS as a top vulnerability of 2010. In a hacker’s eyes, Microsoft is no longer the big daddy, since they have gotten their security up to snuff in the past couple of years. Now it’s time for the focus to be shifted onto software that is complementary to operating systems, such as Adobe’s Flash or Reader. Since Chrome OS will be both the OS and the applications, that’s where the concern is. Basically, cybercriminals are going to target the software that has the lowest level of protection in terms of security, and I think that McAfee has now put Google on alert with their report.

Will there be hardware options?

No, there won’t. Just kidding. But it’s interesting to see Google deciding what hardware is going to work with their operating system. I don’t blame them, because they want to make something that is simple and just works. Microsoft has spent so much time trying to be everthing to everyone in terms of hardware support, and although I don’t blame them, I am curious to see how creating specific standards for Chromium could potentially make this operating system so simple to use there’s no thinking about it.

What about the competition?

Amazingly, there are a lot of options out there for operating systems designed with netbooks in and mind that there too many for me to list here. We just did a review of Moblin, Intel’s open-source foray into the realm, and we plan on posting more soon. A little competition never hurt anyone, especially in the tech market since that is just going to make products that are better for us end users. This is especially true when you consider that sales for netbooks is expected to grow by 297% within the next three years.

Is Chrome OS a marketing ploy?

You have to start wondering if Chrome OS is supposed to be a conduit to everything Google. If you think about it, the operating system complements things that Google has been working on for years. Take Google Apps. While it has been out for 2006, and it did experience an outage this year, it appears that Apps is starting to gain some traction with large companies such as Genetech implementing it. Now give users a Google-branded device that doesn’t have Microsoft Office and what do you get? Instant adoption of Apps by a wide range if users. This method could potentially be used for an array of other Google offerings.

What about Android?

It’s difficult to figure out the strategy on this one, because although Sergey Brin says they’ll eventually converge, it feels like there is a chasm that is further separating these two especially as Android begins to take off in the mobile phone market. Along with a tepid review for the Acer One D250 netbook loaded with Android, it feels like for the time being these two are going to be very, very separate in terms of functionalities. Besides that, I keep wondering about the human-computer interaction element of the two that makes them fundamentally different: for a netbook to be really useful, it needs a full keyboard which is not a feature that is in any way desirable on a phone.

How does Chrome OS affect privacy?

It wouldn’t be surprising if Google CEO Eric Schmidt would like to take back his recent comments on privacy in terms of search, but he has not retracted them as far as I know.  While it’s a great idea that cloud computing can allow someone to log onto a machine and get their data from wherever they are, let’s not forget that the logon you use is your Google account. The information from your account is currently used to target advertising while you search and use Gmail. If that is the case now, in the future who knows what else? Did I mention that the login to Chrome OS is your Google account as well?

What will open source developers’ impact be?

We’ve already seen iterations of Chrome OS developed by open source developers, and there is already a 64-bit version out there to try out. This leads one to wonder where this will go in the next six to eight months before there is an official release. Since Chrome OS is open source, it’s entirely possible that techies out there will run there own builds that allow them to do more than a commercial version would. Regardless, open source is the way to go. Developers outside of Google will make this a legitimate competitor in the netbook market, and we shall soon see if it will either quickly dominate or not.

How will Microsoft fight back?

Although Steve Ballmer doesn’t seem particularly concerned with Chromium, there are some indications that Microsoft is going to have embrace more open source projects in order to stay relevent in a market that is increasingly on the moving towards that direction. For example, Windows4all is a browser based version of Windows 7 that has been developed by Microsoft’s open source community called Codplex. Also, They are releasing Office 2010 with browser based versions. They are going to attempt to stay in the game, but really it seems like all they are doing is trying to not fall completely behind.

This was first reported by IBTimes yesterday, and now other outlets are reporting that the first GoogleBook (yes, it’s the best name I could come up with) will be machine that is very competitive in the netbook market and will be sold at a very affordable $300 price range. The specifications that are being reported include:

-NVIDIA Tegra chip and an ARM CPU, which is integrated

-64GB solid-state hard drive

-2 GB RAM

-10.1 inch 1,280 x 720 HD multitouch display

-Built-in webcam

-Multi-card reader

-Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth

-USB ports, headphone jack

This is a pretty impressive set of features. The reports don’t indicate who is going to be making it, but it’s clear that if this device is going to be sold for $300, wireless carriers are going to have to subsidize the cost with what may be a hefty data plan. But being locked into a contract for two years or so might work for a netbook this powerful. It may not necessarily be a bad idea for this type of gadget to adopt the wireless phone/smartphone life cycle. I think that in order for this to be successful, it needs to be as simple or even more simple than using a phone to keep users interested in this product.

At this point, I would be curious to know how much carriers would charge in a GoogleBook data plan. This is because there have been rumors of wireless carriers like AT&T setting up tiered plans for wireless data as they currently do for voice based on data’s popularity with smartphone, especially the iPhone.

The plan is still to have the GoogleBook out by Christmas 2010, just in time for the impending 4G rollout. In order for this technology to be able to fully embrace a thin-client cloud computing architecture, 4G is probably going to be a necessity for this device to succeed.

Every time you go to a website, Domain Name Service is looking up the IP address that resolves the hostname for you that you type in. So should we be surprised that Google has their own public DNS? Well they do, and you can use it if you configure your network settings so that your DNS servers are set to 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 (that’s memorable). According to the official site, Google’s DNS uses load balancing and something called “smart caching” so that peformance is improved. Also, they claim that their DNS is more secure.

With the broadband speeds that most users are at now, this may not be a bad idea. DNS may actually hold back pages from loading if information from several sites needs to be properly loaded. Since Google’s AdWords is prevalent on so many sites that may be another factor that led them to release a public DNS service as well.

So, at what point does the Google DNS show up as the default on Chrome OS? Right when it is released? I have already written a bit about privacy issues that Google faces. With Chrome OS, their chief method of making a computer work faster than before as well as adding more security will be done by sourcing everything to the cloud. But some may find it concerning that most regular users of a GoogleBook would not think of what their default DNS settings are or how to change them.

A DNS record could be saved along with the account that is logged into a Chrome OS machine. Besides that, when you are logged into Chrome OS, you are using your Gmail login, so everything could be potentially tracked unlike signing out before doing a Google search on a PC today.

What do you think? Would Google save all those DNS resolve requests?

So, we’ve all heard it at this point. Google wants to take the Apple route and lock down hardware that specifically works with their operating system. Difference is, for those who are good with computers, Chrome OS is open source. So the ability to customize it by hacking code on a Google branded netbook is going to still be possible, isn’t it? Maybe not on their own Google branded machines.

The fact that this news came out is not surprising. In order to get what they want in terms of performance and usability, Google needs to have a device that works specifically with the hardware that they dictate. The question now is how other manufacturers that want to sell Chrome OS devices are going to be able to get a piece of the pie.

If Google is going to go the route of branding the hardware with their name, how are other potential Chrome OS netbooks going to be able to compete? With pricing so low already, that eliminates any competitive advantage there. The only way other manufacturers would be able compete is if they came up with a novel hardware design that the Google version doesn’t have or if they have their own deal with a wireless company.

Not only that, since it’s now apparent that Google is deciding to partner up with a wireless carrier for internet service, then that means that other manufactures are probably not going to get a piece of that pie. If the official Chrome OS netbook comes complete with instant internet anywhere, is that service going to be locked down by the device or the software? It’s going to be by device, and I don’t know that Google would have a vested interest in negotiating a deal with a wireless provider for any machine that has Chrome OS on it, just their own branded hardware.

I don’t blame Google for going this route, but I think this news is significant because unlike Android, there hasn’t been an official hardware release for Chrome OS yet.