The Google Chrome OS is an open-source lightweight operating system initially targeted at netbooks. It will run on both x86 and ARM chips, and Google is working with hardware manufacturers, including Acer, ASUS, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard , Lenovo and Toshiba to bring netbooks to market with an OS that touts speed, simplicity and security.

Google-Microsoft Hype

Although Google's Chrome OS announcement set off hype on one hand and speculation on the other about a Google-Microsoft battle, some analysts believe such assessments are premature. By the time Chrome OS-enabled netbooks make it market in 2010, Windows 7-based netbooks may have been on the market for a year.

"Underestimating Google is a mistake by nearly any measure, but we would suggest that expecting to compete effectively against Microsoft in markets where it has enjoyed a 12-plus-month head start is also foolish in the extreme," said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT. "Depending on how or whether the Chrome OS catches fire, Microsoft has the wherewithal to price the netbook version of Windows 7 and its associated applications very aggressively."

Most important, King noted, the future development of the netbook market depends heavily on the activities of OEM partners. He points to problems with Vista that led many of those vendors to explore OS and application options beyond Microsoft. It's up to Windows 7 to repair those partner relationships before Google can get a foothold. But building an effective OEM partner ecosystem is always a challenge.

Deconstructing Traditional PCs

King said the most intriguing thing about the netbook phenomena is the way it is leading to a literal deconstruction of traditional PCs. Most people are used to thinking of computing as being somehow unified around the CPU and an OS. But King said the power and performance limitations of highly mobile technologies are leading to the offloading of certain features and functions to specialized technologies.

"What Google is betting on with the Chrome OS is that this elemental rearrangement of PC technologies will lead to an analogous shift in computing and consumer behavior. If that scenario truly comes to pass, it could disrupt the efforts of virtually every vendor focused on personal computing, not just Microsoft," King said. "If the computing is somehow disassociated from specific devices, where will that leave traditional PC vendors or companies like Apple whose value proposition depends heavily on differentiated customer experience?"

Perhaps the more important question in the near term is whether Google can really offer anything to users that Microsoft, Apple and Linux can't. That remains to be seen as the technology world awaits the first demo of Google Chrome OS.