Is Google looking to compete with Apple in the consumer hardware business? Even before the Google-branded Nexus One smartphone has been officially announced, news comes that Google is preparing a muscular Chrome OS-based netbook for release in 2010.
The current speculation is that the machine will run on a Nvidia Tegra chipset and an ARM CPU, not Intel’s Atom. Other rumors indicate a 10.1-inch TFT HD-ready multi-touch display, a 64GB solid-state drive, 2GB RAM, and a full set of toys: Wi-Fi, 3G, Bluetooth, an Ethernet port, USB ports, a webcam, a 3.5mm audio jack, a multi-card reader, and so on.
Google has reportedly sent out requests for proposals to various fabricators to make the machine according to Google’s specs and design and is shooting for an end-of-year release. It’s expected to have a sub-$300 price point and, in the U.S., to be bundled with wireless carriers’ 3G offerings.
Dog-Food Devices?
Not everyone is convinced that Google will actually release these machines as consumer products. A brief blog post by Mario Queiroz, Google’s vice president of product management, mentioned no specific products but seemed to hint that the Nexus One is only being produced for internal research.
With the idea that the company should eat its own dog food, Queiroz wrote, “We recently came up with the concept of a mobile lab, which is a device that combines innovative hardware from a partner with software that runs on Android to experiment with new mobile features and capabilities, and we shared this device with Google employees across the globe. This means they get to test out a new technology and help improve it.”
Tim Bajarin, principal analyst with Creative Strategies, said Google’s primary interest is in improving the Android platform. “Google is responding to the age-old chicken and egg problem,” Bajarin said. “While they hope to get a…
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