For a while it seemed that Android would be the Google OS, especially with new Android devices such as netbooks appearing on the market. But as I recently wrote, Android seems native app centric at a time when Google is showing with Wave that the Web can be the app (see http://continuations.com/post/133482897). Now Google has taken the logical step of putting a fast-booting version of Linux under its Chrome browser to create a complete OS (http://bit.ly/1ae7vz). While their own post tries to explain how this has only some overlap with Android, it is pretty clear that the two will compete instantly in the netbook market and from there it’s only a small step to smartphones. I am impressed by Google’s willingness to let internal groups with different approaches but similar targets compete like that. Something that Microsoft never did well and now they are being outflanked in two key future markets – netbooks and smartphones – as a result (as an aside: when will the EU competition commission finally wake up to the fact that they are a decade late wrt MSFT?).
