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Rumor: Google Chrome OS tablet hits Verizon on November 26

updated 12:00 pm EDT, Wed August 18, 2010

Google Chrome OS slate seen in late fall


Google's hinted at strategy for a Chrome OS tablet could have more definite plans if a rumor on Wednesday is accurate. An unidentified source claimed the tablet is real, being made by HTC and would ship on November 26. The Download Squad tip has the slate attached to its close partner Verizon and implied it would be subsidized heavily.

The actual specifications aren't as certain, but it's believed to run on an NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core chip and to be relatively aggressive in features despite Chrome OS' light footprint. It would carry a 1280x720 display and tout both 2GB of RAM and a 32GB solid-state drive along with real GPS. Most Windows-based netbooks have 1024x600 screens, 1GB of RAM and 160GB or larger rotating hard disks.

Publicly, Google has talked down the prospects of its own tablet in the same way it downplayed any Android phone, even after the Nexus One. The search leader may be determined to have a device of its own to serve as a reference design for Chrome OS much as the Nexus represented Android. ASUS and other PC builders have committed to Chrome OS hardware by the end of the year but may focus on netbook-class devices rather than tablets. The OS will already have some support for the form factor though, as Chrome supports rotation and will reorient web pages on the fly for portrait or landscape.

In the short term, Chrome OS isn't expected to pose any serious threat to the iPad or necessarily to Android tablets like Verizon's other expected models, the Motorola Stingray and Samsung Galaxy Tab. Chrome OS should have a faster web browser and support Flash but will be almost entirely dependent on web apps rather than native apps and local content.

A Google-made mockup of what a Chrome OS tablet could look like; not the actual product.


By Electronista Staff

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industry, gadgets, Google, Android, Motorola, Samsung, Apple, Chrome OS, Galaxy, iPad

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Previous Comments

  1. WiseWeasel

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Apr 1999

    +6
    08/18, 12:36pm | report spam | reply

    Chrome OS

    Oh man, this is going to fail hard. Going up against the iPad, and other vendors' Android OS tablets, this thing will tank about as badly as the Win 7 tablets. You can't run any native software on the thing; it's web-only. Google just seems to have a poor sense of timing with this product's development and introduction. Only when native software has been made completely redundant will web-only consumer devices stand a chance. That's not happened yet.


  1. sglewis

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jun 2005

    +3
    08/18, 01:26pm | report spam | reply

    Just in time!

    Just as we've forgotten all about Chrome and Android has started getting a little traction in the market, Google is making a Tablet and a big push for Chrome OS.


  1. testudo

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Aug 2001

    0
    08/18, 02:19pm | report spam | reply

    Re: Just in time

    I'm assuming this is being sarcastic, and not actually seeing this as a reasonable thing?


  1. SockRolid

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jan 2010

    +2
    08/18, 02:32pm | report spam | reply

    Solves the Android fragmentation problem

    Fragdroid was just an interim step, as Sergey Brin himself said at Google I/O this year. That helps to explain why it's so difficult to upgrade Android devices: because Google doesn't want you to. They want you to keep your old obsolete Android 1.x handset until Chrome OS devices are ready.

    Now there's the Oracle Java non-compliance suit against Google, which could lead to all Android software being "impounded and destroyed". Further impetus for Google to push Chrome OS out the door.

    Oh, and one more thing. Sooner or later Apple will sell iPhones through Verizon, which is currently Google's safe haven. Once iPhones are sold head-to-head against all those obsolete "last month's model" Android phones on Verizon, Android sales will drop off a cliff. Google will need something new to replace Android, whether or not it survives the Oracle lawsuit.


  1. Jonathan-Tanya

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Oct 2004

    -1
    08/18, 03:29pm | report spam | reply

    What a fantasy world some live in

    when AT&T loses their exclusivity on the iPhone, that frees up those already in the iOS marketplace to choose to buy from a different vendor.

    It's not all added sales - iPhone sales at AT&T will drop off a cliff once this occurs. Especially since, Verizon is rumored to have a larger screen version of iPhone with an internal antenna design. Plus, lets face it, a lot of people hate AT&T and were just forced to be on AT&T.

    The verizon deal is a step in the right direction for Apple - but just one of many steps they still need to take. They are still not on T-mobile, still not on Spring, still not on regional carriers, Cricket, Metro PCS - still not on AT&T's prepaid half of the business, Verizon's or anyone elses for that matter (Virgin Mobile, etc.).

    The Verizon deal doesn't change the fact that Android is way ahead of the game, and you are wrong about Google's position on Chrome - it's not Android that they are unsure about, but Chrome.
    They admit Chrome is unproven, and they are just taking a trial position with Chrome, to see how the market reacts - this is how Google tests market reaction, by releasing products to the market.


  1. Hamranhansenhansen

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Apr 2010

    0
    08/18, 05:01pm | report spam | reply

    Fake GPS

    > Chrome OS' light footprint.

    Chrome OS does not have a light footprint by mobile standards. The hardware has to be powerful because the software is slow and needs a lot of memory, same as Android.

    > along with real GPS

    Every device with a 3G data connection has real GPS. "AGPS" is not fake GPS, it's GPS+.



  1. Jane66

    Baninated

    Joined: May 2010

    0
    08/18, 11:03pm | report spam | reply

    comment title

    Chrome OS tablet? then it will named as Gablet? or ciblet?
    I like Google's Chrome browser, but I really hope Google and Adriod would do some innovation and can bring surprise for users, not follow behind like iPad, iPad now is really a big win, it have many market share, and the iOS have been around with the iPhone, ipad, it's yet fantastic and remarkable, and so many app developers are living on iOS like iFunia, a MAC media converter developer, Apple always can provides for a large number of infestor.


  1. testudo

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Aug 2001

    -1
    08/19, 10:05am | report spam | reply

    Re: Solves the Android fragmentation problem

    Fragdroid was just an interim step, as Sergey Brin himself said at Google I/O this year. That helps to explain why it's so difficult to upgrade Android devices: because Google doesn't want you to. They want you to keep your old obsolete Android 1.x handset until Chrome OS devices are ready.


    First, the only people talking up a 'fragmentation' problem with Android seems to be iPhone users and geeks on the Android side. Most users could give a flying leap. But it never hurts to spread the FUD....

    And no one seems to care about iPhone fragmentation, or that some features, like FaceTime, require a new iphone (iPods/iPads need not apply). iPhone users just go out an buy the new phone. But Google announces some new feature, and the mocking begins about who can take advantage of the feature or how many devices won't.

    Now there's the Oracle Java non-compliance suit against Google, which could lead to all Android software being "impounded and destroyed". Further impetus for Google to push Chrome OS out the door.

    OMG, are you being paid by Apple to spread this FUD around or what? Android and all apps are not going to be destroyed. Nothing even close. If you're stupid enough to believe that, then you'd be stupid enough to dump your iPhone because of the patent lawsuits filed all over it.

    Oh, and one more thing. Sooner or later Apple will sell iPhones through Verizon, which is currently Google's safe haven. Once iPhones are sold head-to-head against all those obsolete "last month's model" Android phones on Verizon, Android sales will drop off a cliff.

    Yes, because all those month old Android phones are no match for Apple's once-a-year models they release.


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