While the stuttering start and uncertain future of smartbooks has been eased somewhat by the decision of major companies to simply cut off their keyboards and declare them innovative alternatives to the iPad, there is a new blow. Google will not be playing the active role in hardware many had hoped…
Speaking to British heavyweight newspaper the Telegraph, Google CEO Eric Schmidt dismissed a multitude of Internet rumors by saying it has no plans to build a Google-branded smartbook to promote Chrome OS.
“We’ve talked about it,” he admitted. “We have a reference spec for Chrome OS, we have a couple of hardware partners all lined up and the open source is all out there. It’s on schedule and it will happen later this year. Let’s see how well those partners do first. My guess is we won’t need to. The PC industry is different from the phone industry. The PC industry is used to working with Microsoft, whereas the mobile industry was not used to working with software.”
Schmidt makes a fair point, even if it was expected that Google would promote the platform with a flagship device much as it did for Android with the Nexus One. Then again, he also used the opportunity to dash hopes of a ‘Nexus Two’:
“The idea a year and a half ago was to do the Nexus One to try to move the phone platform hardware business forward,” he explained. “It clearly did. It was so successful, we didn’t have to do a second one. We would view that as positive but people criticized us heavily for that. I called up the board and said: ‘Ok, it worked. Congratulations – we’re stopping’.”
I can hear the disappointed groans from here, and with good reason, since it could be argued the main traction in Android came after the Nexus One turned up and showed handset makers how to do it. Since then, there have been numerous clones, and the same can be said of PC makers who copy any company – often Apple – which shows the slightest spark of ingenuity.
Google, the Nexus series still has life in it. Now is not the time to be talking of attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion and C-beams glittering in the dark near the Tannhauser gate…
Gordon
