On Demand Apps with Chrome OS February 16, 2010
Google Chrome Promises Instant-On App Access
It often takes a few long, boring minutes for a PC to boot up, load Windows, open a browser, and finally reach the Web. Wouldn’t it be nice to circumvent all of that? How much productivity would be added to your day? Not that much, but a decent amount of top-of-the-day frustration would be immediately eliminated if you didn’t have to go through that process.
Google’s Promise
Now you may not have to. While Google hasn’t told us too much about Chrome OS’s features, one it has promised - and that people seem to be coveting - is instant access to applications.
People want to get their email instantly - without waiting for the PCs to get ready to reach out to the Web. Google’s VP of product management, Sundar Pichai, vowed that Chrome OS will take care of this frustration.
Other Contenders
Other companies have had somewhat of a head start on this idea. Dell, DeviceDM, Phoenix Technologies, and Xandros are among those developing “instant-on” operating systems built on the Linux kernel that can get people browsing the Web in a few short seconds.
Dell Latitude ON is already available on several Dell business model laptops. It bypasses Windows startup by using the MontaVista Linux distribution, customized with Dell’s help, running on a secondary processor to give users immediate access to email, the Web, and read-only Office and PDF documents.
DeviceDM says it’s 2-year-old SplashTop OS has shipped on more than 10 million laptops from Acer, HP, Lenovo, LG and other manufacturers. SplashTop is a lightweight, Linux-based OS with a Firefox browser that can boot up in less than 5 seconds and offers access to the Web, instant messaging, Skype, and some basic gaming.
Public Demands
However, these other offerings are hardly household names. That’s something that Google’s Chrome OS is likely to change. With Google jumping into the market, a lot more people are going to be demanding instant-on applications and Web access. With the growing popularity of netbooks and other mobile computing devices, the crunch will be on for vendors to keep up with the demands of the public.
