thechromesource – Google Chrome and Chrome OS News and Resources

Android Set to Grow Immensely

Posted on 26. Jan, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 2 Comments

IDC, one of the top global analysis companies, is expecting the smartphone market to grow by 20% over the next three years. But that statistic did not stand out for me as much as the fact that they expect Android to become the fastest growing operating system in the mobile phone market. By 2013, they predict that 68 million Android handsets will be shipped which would make it the number two mobile phone operating system after Nokia’s Symbian.

Why does this surprise me? Well, that means Research in Motion and Apple would be below Android in 2013, and those are two companies that make their own proprietary hardware and operating systems to sell as one package.

So proprietary makers of computer operating systems and devices should take note. There are benefits for mobile computing devices to go towards an open source solution. The biggest positive is cost.  Without licensing fees associated with an operating system such as Windows, computer makers are able to sell their products for a more favorable price. Plus, an open source platform such as Chrome OS  has been seen by a wide array of developers before it has been released, making the chances of a serious security threat less of a problem.

It makes me wonder how strict Google’s supposed hardware standards will be for the Google netbook, and how stringent that they are with the smartphone products that are coming out with Android. My guess is that these two markets are vastly different, and the requirements that Google is making for Chrome OS devices is to ensure that the performance of their flagship product is light years ahead of its competition.

Windows Mobile 7 Being Delayed for Competitive Reasons?

Posted on 10. Jan, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 1 Comments

It is being reported that Microsoft will delay the release of Windows Mobile version 7 until some time in 2011. This is a significant amount of time to hold off for a release from Redmond since it was expected that they were going to release a new version sometime in the latter half of 2010.

Microsoft recently released an updated Windows Moblie 6.5 in 2009, but it was not a complete makeover of their previous version and does little to compete with the explosion of new device that are being released sporting other mobile operating systems, including Android.

It’s entirely possible that Microsoft has decided to team up with another tech bellweather to try to come up with a possible competitor to Chrome OS and/or Android. I’m starting to think that perhaps Microsoft will concede the mobile phone market to Google, Apple and Research in Motion. They may decide that it is not a profitable market and perhaps they will only focus on netbooks and smartbooks. It makes sense, as their expertise is in computing – not smartphones. It is not outside of expectations that the new Windows Mobile will actually not be for phones at all.

Windows Mobile 6.5 reviews at its release were not impressive. Perhaps Microsoft should just focus on making their computer operating systems better. Because there are soon going to be free operating systems for mobile computing that may fare better than Windows will.