MoneyWatch Tech

Google Fumbles Chrome OS Netbook Introduction

By Erik Sherman

Updated on: December 15, 2010 / 1:41 PM EST / MoneyWatch

When you're introducing a brand new product, you want to stack the deck in your favor. However, Google badly fumbled its introduction of Chrome OS netbooks the minute it handed units to reviewers. That's a pity for the company, because the operating system seems a vital part to a much larger strategy.

It's bad enough dealing with criticism that goes to the heart of your product design and its fit into the overall company ... and there's been plenty:

Free Software Foundation founder Richard Stallman called it "careless computing" that would cause users to lose control over their own data.
Matt Rosoff, west coast editor of Silicon Alley Insider, calls it a "waste of time."
Gmail creator Paul Buchheit thinks that Chrome OS's days are numbered.

Each of these views has some merit. Giving Google -- or any other company -- sole control of your data is risky. And Google already has Android. I myself have thought that Chrome OS was superfluous and a distraction for management.

All that is true. However, when you look at Chrome OS not as a piece of technology, but as a tool to attack competitor Microsoft (MSFT), it takes on new significance that trumps the problems. Look at Chrome OS in context:

Google Messaging Continuity, which lets companies back up Microsoft-based email into a cloud
Microsoft Office connector that lets users sync documents with Google Apps and collaborate
Chrome OS netbooks, which will supposedly run 8 hours on a battery charge and only have a browser and HTML 5 apps, so users have to do everything on the Web
customized Chrome settings that appear either in the browser or on Chrome OS when you sign in to Google

Chrome OS is part of a concerted effort to woo people to the Web, wean them from Microsoft Office, and prove to them that they don't need Windows. Succeed there, and Google cripples its rival. Silicon Valley Insider has a great graph that shows Microsoft's dependence on Windows:

That degree of reliance is a huge weakness. Chrome OS netbooks are a critical part of the strategy. Make them cheap, powerful, and convenient enough, and enticing consumers becomes much easier. Google needed to make the strongest impression possible when putting advance units in the hands of influential people. There was many positive comments. Unfortunately, the negative remarks about the unbranded Cr-48 units that Google sent did stand out.

Adobe (ADBE) Flash is slow on the device, which means slow net video.
Trackpads often worked badly and inaccurately.
Keyboard layout was different enough from existing devices to throw some.
Hardware was generally slow.
Compatibility with other devices is restricted.
The design fights against desktop operating system habits.

Google needed people to ooh and ah over the Cr-48, even though it was an advanced prototype machine. The hardware shortcomings tainted reaction to the concept of a Chrome OS netbook, which was the opposite of what Google management wanted. It was another example of bad marketing from the company. Given that it's been around for longer than a decade, that particular weakness wears thin.

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Image: Flickr user JamieL.WilliamsPhotography, CC 2.0.