Last week was all about Google products. Be it the launch of latest edition of Android,  Android 2.3 aka Gingerbread, or be it the launch of Nexus S, successor of Google’s first self-branded phone ‘Nexus One’ or even the next major update to Google Maps, all one could see last week was Google and just Google.

But one thing that stole the limelight among other things was much awaited ‘Chrome OS event’. Google invited tech journos to the suspense packed event on Tuesday, Dec 7 and the event proved to be a mixed bag of fruits.

Chrome OS team explained that they have long been hard at work, building Chrome OS from the ground up but they’re still not ready with fully tested and debugged version of Chrome OS and therefore, as rumored earlier, releasing only beta version of Chrome OS at the moment so no consumer Chromebook for Chrome OS fans during the holiday season.

In a pilot program set up by Google for Chrome OS, the Internet giant is giving away truckloads of Chrome OS Notebooks, named Cr-48, by giving any adult U.S. citizen a chance to request for a test unit using this form. Cr-48 notebooks carry no branding whatsoever(not even Google’s ) and with distribution of fully loaded(Verizon powered 3G) notebooks, Google’s plan is to create tens of thousands of beta testers of Chrome OS beta version.

As Google clearly stated during Chrome event itself, the current version of Chrome OS installed on Cr-48 notebooks is in its beta state and therefore, all lucky recipients of Chrome OS should expect to encounter lot of bugs while using the test unit.

The more users of Cr-48 notebooks out there, the more data(bug reporting) Google will gather from actual usage habits of end consumers.

About the future of Chrome OS

Well, many skeptics were pretty unsure about Google’s stance over Chrome OS, especially after managing to grow many folds in mobile OS space with Android. The fact of the matter is that Google looks up to Chrome OS as their ultimate cloud based OS and envision it as the future of computing in the years to come.

One must note here that Google refrained from using the term ‘Netbook’ during the Chrome event and preferred calling their Cr-48 test unit as Cr-48 Notebook, not an over-sized Netbook.

Although not highlighted much, there seems to be a shift in Google’s strategy with reference to their main hardware focus regarding Chrome OS. Netbooks are sharply loosing their relevance in computing industry with the fast advent of consumer friendly tablets and Android seems more appropriately positioned to capitalize on untapped tablet market, instead of Chrome OS.

PC market is already facing severe decline due to obvious limitations and that leaves laptop/notebooks as the only potent hardware option that will successfully thrive in the days to come.  That’s probably the reason why Google is pushing ‘Chrome OS’ as the future OS for Notebooks.

Google also confirmed during the event that Acer and Samsung will be the first two companies, who would bring their Chrome OS Notebooks into the market by mid 2011. More manufacturers will join the bandwagon as the time progresses.

Google is giving away Cr-48 Notebooks via several other ways apart from the primary option of form entry so we will be reporting on those ways as we discover them. Keep visiting our site for more info.

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