Hardware Vendors Not As Chrome-Planted As Google Says
My colleague Michael Hickins and I have been going back and forth on this blog about Chrome OS. His last post about that followed the Google line about just whom Google had lined up, including HP, Lenovo, Asustek and others. But as Dan Nystedt at Computerworld noted today, if you talk to the PC vendors, many sound far less committed than the impression Google's blog entry gives.
In short, many of the vendors are saying that they are evaluating the software, but have made no commitments. In the words of someone from HP, that company is "studying" the new operating system. Lenovo said roughly the same thing, hanging its decision on what it brings customers "more product choice and capabilities in terms of features and technologies."
Given what I know of the PC business, this makes a lot of sense. There may be no payment to Google for using Chrome, but that is hardly the only issue for them. It comes down to what the vendors don't want:
- hardware design problems and limitations
- customer support problems that could come back to haunt them
- consumer indifference