Chrome OS – should Microsoft be worried?

This week has seen a frequently rumoured but not really expected announcement of Google’s quest for world domination take a huge leap forward. Or has it. Chrome OS has this week seen pretty much blanket coverage by both the tech communities and by the mainstream media. But is all the hype justified?

Initial – fairly limited – info suggests that what we’ll see is a yet another flavour of a Linux-based os. So nothing groundbreaking here, is there? Well I’m not so sure. Whilst the unix geeks are already playing down Chrome os, I think that this is potentially a game changer. Ok so initially we’re looking at something fairly low key, aimed at the netbook market, but I expect this to only be the start. Granted there’s already a variety of Linux distros on the Asus and Acer neat little netbooks, but really, put one in front of your average user and ask them to to do something even marginally more complex than click on Firefox and already you’re into murky water. What Google will do, without a doubt, is bring unparalleled usability to the os. And that’s why MS need to be looking very carefully at this. Think about it, everyone already intuitively knows the way Google do things, so it will be a very easy transition from simply searching for things, to opening the door to their already rich – and no doubt soon to be rapidly growing – suite of apps. Google will make it astonishingly simple for users to do things on their pcs, and you just know that the os will be very lean, with thr minimum of fuss. And of course, it’ll look just great!

So will a highly performing, small footprint, functionally rich os really propel Google from nobodies to serious os players?can they really take on MS and Apple at their own games, and re-marginalise the Ubuntu’s of this world back to the specialist communities? Possibly. But hre’s where I think this upcoming battle will be won or lost – on customer service, and the overall customer experience – how easy it is to do things, change things, get advice on things, sort problems out or get direction will be the decider. How Google actively build their suppot network is critical. By building – pretty soon – a worldwide network of super users, not just geeks, but geeks who can also talk to us regular folks, Google can give themselves an amazing shot at serious success. Give them the access to the os, let them build the tools to help us normal folks get the best out of Chrome, take a leaf out of Apple’s iPhone book and make the barrier to entry seriously low, and they will reap the rewards. By making Chrome, and it’s apps, totally accessible