In July, 2009, Google announced its Google Chrome Operating System is coming.
Today, PC World discusses its findings after looking into the new OS. The new operating system is initially targeted for use in powering netbook PC’s. I applaud Google’s tenacity in this space, but they have a very difficult road ahead. Google just released the open source to Chrome OS.
Can Google topple the OS gorilla? Operating systems are a tough nut to crack for a reason – they must deal with so many different kinds of hardware, which necessarily requires device drivers and managing the nuances and complexities of a broad range of devices. And there’s an 800-pound Gorilla who thinks they own the OS and desktop space today…
To address this issue, it appears Google’s strategy is to limit the range of initial hardware supported to a few netbooks – network-connected PC’s that have only solid state memory and no local hard disk or storage. Everything will be stored in the “cloud” – somewhere in Google-land or on existing Web servers.
Numerous attempts have been made to create the network computer – to date, all have failed to garner widespread adoption. Could this time be different?
Perhaps. Unlike prior attempts, Google has access to millions of consumers. Consumers are more willing to embrace change than businesses and Google has the brand power to pull something like this off.
Next-generation thin-client platform? In my years with Citrix, it was clear that “thin clients” had become extremely popular with businesses – from very small to very large for a reason – simplicity. The simplicity of a network device, where all the data and applications are stored centrally are well understand and accepted. So this approach is already well established and accepted by mainstream business today.
Businesses want a better thin client. And from speaking with many enterprise and small to medium business customers, it was clear that they weren’t 100% satisfied with the thin-client solutions they were using, mainly because they still had to update them, patch them for security holes, etc. If Google could truly deliver a robust, secure, centrally-updated thin-client OS as the basis for the “network computer”, it just might be what these companies would want (and could be timely to replace the last-generation thin client with something better).
If Google could alleviate that pain and cost from the thin-client with a trusted, secure, reliable thin-client platform, well, that could be very interesting indeed to these kinds of customers. Of course, these customers would want more than netbooks – they’d want fully-functioning desktop and notebook PC replacement thin-clients.
Heck, I might even consider using one of those at home someday!
There are numerous challenges ahead for Google in this space, though. To be truly acceptable as a Windows replacement, the client-side device must ultimately be really good at dealing with streamed media (video and audio), local USB devices of all kinds, and printers. And once the USB interface is supported, local hard disk storage is easy.
One surprising thing to me in my days at Citrix is how easy it is to underestimate the complexities and importance of printer support – something that’s easy to take for granted and difficult to do (again, because of the range of devices).
For businesses to adopt Google’s new paradigm, Google probably assumes businesses will continue their slow but sure conversion away from Windows-based applications to native Web-based applications. That’s certainly a trend that is inescapable, it seems.
And to be sure, Windows applications are not going away, so I hope this isn’t some kind of ill-founded OS-jihad move on Google’s part.
Businesses and people expect a heterogeneous, accommodating computing environment. Google would be smart to figure out how the two most popular thin-client protocols and clients can be supported by the Chrome OS: Citrix ICA and Microsoft RDP.
Businesses would probably welcome a low-cost, secure, cloud-based thin client, but need some means of bridging the “old world” into the new world for years (perhaps decades) to come, as their legacy applications will live on.
Google can’t be all things to everyone (certainly not overnight), and will need a healthy ecosystem and open API strategy for all of this to ultimately work on a grand scale – something I’m sure their architects have spent countless hours mapping out already. There’s a lot to be learned from Apple and their iPhone client application strategy, for example.
The world doesn’t want another operating system Like I said, I applaud Google for taking the first step. However, the world doesn’t really care about or want a new operating system. What people want is affordable, reliable “computing independence” – that’s what can be bought and sold, the new experience. I’m fairly certain Google knows this, even if they haven’t exactly articulated it clearly yet.
Marketing Apple is a good place to start. Google should take note of Apple’s huge success, perhaps starting with the Marketing Apple e-book, where it’s made clear that people don’t buy technology (like a new OS) – they simply want a better user experience, lower costs and improved reliability and security.
Google has the opportunity to provide that, if their marketing becomes as solid as their technology.
Good luck vs. the 800 pound gorilla – you’re going to need it. I wish Google the best of luck in their new endeavor and just leave you with this thought. Everyone who has chosen to drive their battleship directly into Microsoft’s (that I can think of) isn’t around anymore (Netscape comes to mind), and it’s clear the machine in Redmond is working 24 x 7 to counteract these directly competitive moves by Google.
It will be interesting to see this play out over the coming years…Google had better hold on to that search engine dominance and AdWords revenue stream, because it’s clear that Microsoft is coming after it to choke off its new biggest competitor with Bing search engine and its sidekick AdCenter. It will obviously take a long while, but if you know Microsoft like I do, you realize just how relentless they are when it comes to winning.
Google is on the right track with the Chrome browser. One of Apple’s “marketing secrets” is to delight their customers with the highest-quality products possible that deliver a superior user experience. Google apparently realizes this and it is exemplified by the Google Chrome browser – my default browser now.
The Chrome browser is lightweight, fast and highly-productive and broadly compatible. Internet Explorer is slow, bloated, somewhat incompatible and has proven unreliable.
My personal productivity doubled when I dumped IE in favor of the Chrome browser. If I were Microsoft, I’d be adding my best people to that IE10 project – soon. Microsoft is losing the browser war, based upon all the stats I see on my own websites and elsewhere. Obviously, losing the browser client-platform is something Microsoft can ill-afford to just let happen at this point, yet it’s continuing unabated.
And Firefox has become bloated and slower now, too. However, I still prefer Firefox for client-side JavaScript and AJAX debugging, due to the slick Firebug debugger.
When I first saw the Google Chrome browser appear, I was skeptical at first. Then one day, I’d finally had my fill of fighting with IE and gave Google Chrome a try. This was the best move I’ve made in a long time. Google’s browser strategy is a clear winner – it will just take some time to reach a dominating position in the marketplace on Windows desktops…as will the Chrome OS.
It’s good to see some real competition in the computing platform area. Should bode well for consumers and businesses.
LATE UPDATE (November stats for visitors to this blog site):
Browser stats from visitors to this blog site for November to-date are shown below. Clearly, Firefox and Chrome are rapidly taking share from Internet Explorer (stats and chart courtesy of Google Analytics, of course):
Related posts:
Comments on this entry are closed.