by Brad Linder (RSS feed) Feb 2nd 2010 at 10:27AM
Google's Android smartphone operating system is clearly aimed at the same customers that might be interested in picking up an Apple iPhone. But it looks like Google may not only be interested in taking the iPhone down a notch or two -- the company is also working to ensure that it's upcoming Chrome OS plays well with tablet computers. You know, like the recently announced Apple iPad.
That's not to say that Chrome OS will run on the iPad. Rather, the operating system, which is designed specifically for netbooks and mobile computers, will feature touchscreen optimizations that will allow PC makers to load it on devices with or without keyboards.
As Lee mentioned yesterday in Chrome Corner, the Chromium developer site has a page dedicated to a concept UI for tablets. It's choc full of mockups of a tablet with an adjustable on-screen keyboard, touchscreen launchers, a zooming interface, and browser tabs that would show up on the side of the screen sort of like the Firefox Mobile.
Right now this is only a concept, and it's not clear if there will be any Google Tablet hardware. But it shows that Google is at least thinking about the touchscreen tablet space. A number of PC makers have also started loading Google Android on tablets. And you know who else is interested in the tablet space? Microsoft. Windows 7 features an on-screen keyboard and a number of touch-friendly features built right into the OS.
It's also probably worth pointing out that the iPad will be able to run 140,000+ iPhone apps at launch, while Windows tablets will be able to run a wealth of Windows software. Any Chrome tablet will be able to run... Chrome, which is basically an entire OS built around a web browser.
You can check out a concept video of a fake Chrome tablet after the break. And if you want to check out a pre-release version of Chrome OS, you might want to check out Hexxeh's latest Chromium OS Zero build which includes a new auto-update feature.
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