CSS Forums - View Single Post - Google to launch its own operating system [Dawn News] 08 Jul, 2009

ravaila · #1 Wednesday, July 08, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO: Google has announced plans for a personal computer operating system on its official blog. This will be another clash between the Internet search king and software giant Microsoft.

Details on the system were unavailable, other than it would be based on Google's Chrome browser.

Chrome was launched in September but has failed to enjoy the spectacular success of Google's search engine. This was noted in the blog when the company stated that ‘the operating systems that browsers (Chrome) run on were designed in an era where there was no web’ thus the operating system is dubbed a ‘natural extension of Google Chrome.’

The browser has captured just a tiny share of a market dominated by Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Microsoft's new search engine Bing was launched in a bid to hit back at Google's gains in the search market, but still lags behind its rival. Web analytics firm StatCounter said last week that Bing had carved out an 8.23 percent share of the US search market in June. By contrast, however, Google continued to dominate the search market with a huge 78.48 percent share last month.

Google already has an operating system - Android.

While Android is only used for mobile phones at the moment, the open-source operating software with Internet capabilities has showcased Google's obvious interest in expanding beyond its search engine base. However, the blog stressed that Android and the upcoming Chrome OS were different but also acknowledged that ‘there are areas where Google Chrome OS and Android will overlap.’

US telecom carrier giant T-Mobile said last month the latest version of a touch-screen smartphone featuring Android would be available in August. It is being seen as Google's answer in the highly competitive smartphone market to the newly released Apple iPhone 3GS, the Palm Pre and the latest Blackberrys.
-AFP