Are Google Smartbooks Coming in November?
It’s already November, but there’s still time for plenty of surprise launches before Christmas shopping hits us hard. I was surprised to learn that there may be a few smartbooks running Google’s Chrome OS coming soon. While netbooks were a big hit last year, smartbooks have been tried before and were not popular. Maybe their time is coming. Will we find out this month?
In case you didn’t know, a smartbook is barely big enough to support a full qwerty keyboard, and typically runs on ARM processors. The battery on one of these mini computers can last you all day.
According to an article at Digitimes:
Global brand vendors are expected to launch their new generation smartbooks featuring the Google Chrome operating system (OS) later this month (November), while Google also plans to launch its own-brand Chrome notebook with a similar strategy as its Nexus One smartphone, according to sources from component players.
The article mentions that Google is planning a November launch for a Chrome OS notebook, in addition to the rumored Chrome OS tablet. That sounds like a lot to deal with, and I wouldn’t be surprised if neither one of them make it to the market this year.
For those of you who are adventurous, curious and a little geeky, there are some Chrome OS builds by Hexxeh that can be booted from USB sticks. If you are only mildly curious, we have some Chrome OS screenshots and video for you.
Author: Clif Sipe
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Wasn’t this done a long time in the past with products like the HP Journada? I know they were popular in their time, were popular being the operative phrase here.
Yes Phoghat, I mentioned that in the article. However, I wouldn’t agree that they were popular. I’ve never actually seen one in public, have you? I’ve seen plenty of netbooks, tons of laptops, a few iPads, but I’ve never seen anyone using a smartbook.