Google plots pre-Christmas Chrome OS iPad killer
Big carrier subsidies to slash up-front price, says mole
Google will have a spec-tastic, low-cost, possibly even free Chrome OS tablet in punters' hands a month before Christmas, it has been claimed.
And now the bad news: it's likely to be only available in the US, and if you want to get the tablet for a lot less than the iPad, you'll need to take out a Verizon data airtime deal.
Launch day, according a to an unnamed source cited by website Downloadsquad, will be Friday, 26 November, the day after Thanksgiving and a time when holidaying Yanks descend upon retail outlets in their droves.
According to the mole - if mole he be - HTC is making the hardware, which will use Nvidia's ARM-based Tegra 2 system-on-a-chip. It'll have 2GB of Ram - which is a lot for this kind of device, especially one with a cloud-centric OS - and 32GB of Flash storage, possibly expandable through memory cards, though that's not certain.
The display will be 1280 x 720, so well set for widescreen HD content. Navigation too, thanks to built-in GPS chippery, plus Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and - hence the Verizon link - 3G connectivity. It'll have a video conferencing camera too, the source says.
If said mole is correct, Google's gadget will come in ahead of a raft of tablets based on the online advertising giant's other OS, Android, which is expected to get all tablet-ready at the tail end of the year in its 3.0 release. ®
COMMENTS
So, definitely the new Microsoft then?
In terms of: where have all the original ideas gone? Is this it from now on — wait for someone else to launch a popular product then usurp them with essentially the same product under more liberal licensing?
@MD Rackham
"Just like all the iPod killers... ...why can't they just create their own product..."
You mean like Apple "created" the iPod? More like copied all of the personal music players that were already on the market!
1999 - "Personal Jukebox" by Compaq
2000 - "Creative Nomad Jukebox" by Creative
2001 - first iPod
iPhone? - too many existing mobile phone manufacturers to list
iPad? - hardly the first tablet PC in the marketplace
Great innovation by Apple? They have rarely, if ever, been truly innovative. What they ARE good it is making a better-looking version of somebody else's idea and giving it "must have" status.
An interesting interpretation
The sum total of Android handsets outsold the iPhone at one data point in one territory, and that means the game is already lost? I'd suggest you have a prejudiced interpretation.
Just like all the "iPod Killers"...
...it's likely to have a big marketing splash then disappear from the market after six months.
Instead of creating a somebody-elses-idea-killer, why can't they just create their own product with some ideas of their own?
Those specs sound positively Zune-tastic.
Chrome OS vs. Android?
I think someone at Google has been hitting the Jenkem a little too hard.
Chrome OS was originally targeted as a netbook/smartbook OS, now they want to not only convert it into a touchscreen OS but one that competes with Android?
This might be the most retarded thing I've heard out of the Chocolate Factory... maybe the cynics are right when they describe Google as a bunch of caffeine riddle assburger kids running around with no direction whatsoever.
Anonymous of course, Google nevar forgets
