You will have noticed a lot of blogging and press around the announcement of the Google Chrome open operating system. Google have been working on Chrome for quite a long time now, creating one of the fastest and most stable browsers available. I’d like see it on my mac sometime soon, and it looks like it’s not far off considering the beta quality.
There have been many indications of course that Chrome would ultimately be the resident Android browser, and so bringing it to ARM based netbooks looks to me like the first indication of mobile support. So I’d guess that we’re about a year away from seeing it on Android for the first time. The big question is why Android wasn’t confirmed as the OS, and I don’t have an answer for that.
As we all know many of Google’s key properties like Youtube, Google Video, Street View and platforms like Android all use Flash to deliver a richer web experience. So it’s great to see Google updated their blog with an FAQ naming Adobe as a partner in this new venture. Of course we’re pretty much good to go once these devices start to role out whatever the OS and device.
There’s no doubt that we’re seeing something pretty special here, netbooks have become a very common sight in the past year. I see people using them on trains, at the airport and on their holidays to keep up with emails and plan their trip on the go. Though it could be that the developing world moves from Internet via their mobile phones straight to netbooks, which are of course less expensive, demand less power and are built on free and open software stacks.
Very interesting times, and of course a whole new raft of opportunities for web developers and the Flash Platform.