Google’s foray into “Chromebooks” — basically Chrome OS-based netbooks with some additional functionality — hasn’t been as smooth as its move into smartphones with Android, which has spread like wildfire through the mobile world — Android is now the top OS worldwide. But Google isn’t giving up on Chromebook just yet, and the update to the Chrome OS — which is centered completely on web apps — shows that the Google team wants to keep finding new ways to innovate the laptop OS experience.

The update to the Chrome OS is the main addition Google points to in a blog post today. Google said it has streamlined the already-simple user interface with a new login screen, a revamped “New Tab” page that looks like the Chrome browser, and there are new shortcuts to the File Manager and Chrome Web Store.

Additionally, the company said its Chromebooks from Acer and Samsung would now be available starting at $299, the lowest price we’ve seen on Chromebooks. The $299 models will be available “beginning this week” from Amazon, Best Buy and Tiger Direct. At present, the price changes are not shown on the seller sites, except for the $299 Acer AC700-1099.

Two researchers told a crowd at the Black Hat security conference today that they had used web-based hacker tricks to compromise the security of the Chrome OS, which is the software that powers recently launched laptop-like Chromebooks from a variety of vendors. The hacks let the researchers get access to a user’s emails, Google Docs, contacts, and Google Voice messages. If Google doesn’t patch the variety of flaws found or if researchers uncover more, then hackers could have a field day accessing data on Chromebooks.

Matt Johanson and Kyle Osborn, two researchers at White Hat Security’s Threat Research Center, said in their talk that they spent months doing research on Chrome OS. They found a flaw in ScratchPad, a preinstalled extension to the Chrome OS that lets people take notes and save them to cloud-based Google Docs. On stage at Black Hat, the researchers showed both videos of the hacked documents and live demos as well.

“You basically grab and download someone’s contacts like this,” Osborn said, demonstrating the deed on a big screen.

In a statement, a Google spokesman said, “This conversation is about the web, not Chrome OS. Chromebooks raise security protections on computing hardware to new levels. They are also better equipped to handle the web attacks that can affect browsers on any computing device, thanks in part to a carefully designed extensions model and the advanced security available through Chrome that many users and experts have embraced.”

Google also recently published information about writing more secure extensions to the Chrome OS, and it explained why it thinks the Chrome OS is more secure.

With Chromebooks, no data is stored on the device and everything takes place in the cloud and is accessible via the Chrome web browser. By attacking browsers with known exploits such as cross-site scripting, cross-site requests, and “clickjacking,” hackers can get around the Chrome OS’s security protections. The researchers say they can do high-speed scans of intranets via the hack and can view active host Internet Protocol addresses (which let them figure out what websites you’re looking at). They also say they can take over a user’s Google account by stealing session cookies, which can contain user password data.

Chrome OS is not unique in having these types of vulnerabilities. Other OSes are also subject to similar attacks.

Google was informed of the vulnerabilities and addressed some of them, including the ScratchPad flaw, but the researchers said some of the underlying weaknesses remain.

The demonstration is a pointed reminder that the shift toward cloud computing is not a panacea for all security problems.

The release of these netbooks will be a test to see if U.S. consumers are interested in a new kind of operating system that is focused on web applications. The promotional language on Amazon describes the laptops like this:

“Chromebooks are built and optimized for the web, where you already spend most of your computing time. So you get a faster, simpler and more secure experience without all the headaches of ordinary computers.”

Pricing for the models falls in line with many Windows-7-based netbooks. The computers range from $379.99 to $499.99.

Google’s foray into the netbook and laptop space has not been as smooth as its move into smartphones with Android, which has essentially spread like wildfire through the mobile world. The company announced it would create a Linux-based laptop OS back in July 2009, dubbed Chrome OS. But we’re just now seeing the implementation of the OS on these machines, meaning the project is likely less important to the company than pushing forward Android development on phones and tablets.

One interesting thing that Google is doing with the computers is offering a monthly subscription program for businesses and schools. Business users can lease the machine for $28 a month, while students can lease for $20 a month. That price includes support, updates, warranty, and replacements.

I think Google is headed for a disaster with the Chromebook. While it’s an interesting idea to build a laptop experience centered on web apps, it’s not what consumers are accustomed to. Customers want functionality outside of the Web, even if they mostly want to surf the Web. When you use a photo editor, for example, you’ll have to be online to use it. And most customers just won’t get that concept.

Are you interested in picking up a Chromebook? Do you think Google is moving in the right direction with these machines?

The search giant, of course, offers a range of online services, but its most cloud-centric product is Chrome OS, an operating system that basically consists of a Web browser and … well, that’s it. Anything a user wants to accomplish, they have to do through websites and web applications. (Google describes its Chromebook devices as “nothing but the web”.) With iCloud, on the other hand, users continue to download and install software — Apple’s infrastructure just ensures that they can access everything regardless of which device they’re using.

Here’s how John Gruber characterized the difference on his blog Daring Fireball:

In both cases, your data is in the cloud, and you can access it from anywhere with a network connection. But Google’s vision is about software you run in a web browser. Apple’s is about native apps you run on devices. Apple is as committed to native apps — on the desktop, tablet, and handheld — as it has ever been.

Google’s frame is the browser window. Apple’s frame is the screen.

What does that difference mean for consumers? Well, I think Apple presents a friendlier vision of the cloud than Google. You don’t have to think of the cloud as a Web browser or, as Apple chief executive Steve Jobs put it during the keynote today, as a “hard drive in the sky”. If you watch Google’s video promoting Chrome OS, it’s certainly funny and clever, but it’s also working overtime to try to explain a concept that’s alien to most consumers. iCloud, on the other hand, should just work — you continue to use your favorite applications in the same way, and when you switch to a new device, all your applications, settings, and files will be there for you.

Jobs also said iCloud advances his vision of a file-storage system that’s designed around applications, rather than a complicated hierarchy of folders and files. Apple’s iPad and iPhone already offer examples of this — if you’re looking for a file, you don’t go hunting around the hard drive. Instead, if you want to access your photos, you open the Photos app. If you want to read your documents, you open the Pages app. (Contrast that with the cloud storage that Google offers through Google Docs, which is all about storing files regardless of application.) Right now, the apps that tap into the iCloud system were created by Apple, but Jobs said outside developers will be able connect their apps too, through a series of application programming interfaces (APIs).

The real question, of course, is whether this works as smoothly and intuitively as Apple claims. I was impressed by the on-stage demos today, but hey, Ping sounded good in theory, too.

Today, at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco, executive Sundar Pichai (who leads Google’s Chrome team) said that Pichette “misspoke”. Google’s goal with Chrome isn’t to force people to use Google applications and services but rather to create a browser where Google can offer an optimized experience for its various applications. As Pichai put it, on Chrome “there is nothing between [users] and Google” and it gives Google “the ability to develop a seamless experience.”

Pichai also said that Chrome is “tremendously valuable to Google” because it increases Web usage and search — it sounds like Google has seen a direct improvement on those fronts from Chrome users, but it declined to share specifics.

The issue came up during a discussion of Chrome OS, Google’s new operating system which Google will release its first devices for on June 15. One reporter wondered whether Google is now creating a “walled garden”, since Chrome OS users can only use the Chrome browser. Pichai countered that he finds it “hard to think of” a platform that’s more open, because Chrome OS is basically the Web, and Web applications can integrate directly with Chrome OS with as little work as rewriting a single line of code.

On the other hand, he acknowledged that if someone wants to use a different Web browser or multiple browsers, then Chrome OS may not be the best device for them.

Chromebooks are powered by the Chrome operating system, which is basically a suped-up web browser masquerading as an OS that gives users access to some of Google’s most popular web applications like Gmail, Google Docs and Google Calendar.

The Chromebooks are available to businesses for $28 per user per month. They’re also available to educational institutes for $20 per user per month. Google also upgrades the Chromebooks for each business at the end of each hardware cycle — for free. So there are no additional overhead costs and it saves the time and money required to bring in consultants and IT professionals to ensure the changeover happens smoothly.

Google is going to introduce a whole new class of businesses to some of the benefits of having centralized network and being able to share information and files quickly across all devices. There are a lot of web applications out there that already do that — like cloud storage provider Box.net and enterprise social network Yammer. Any of those companies can bake their services right into the Chromebook thanks to its extensive application programming interface (API) library. And even the most classic businesses that rely on massive internal networks and huge IT staffs are going to find that price tag hard to resist.

The Chromebook program ensures that administrators have complete control over every computer within their network — with no exceptions. There isn’t a way that a user can accidentally download any files that might compromise the network because the whole system is based on a web interface. There’s also a smaller chance that they will accidentally leak sensitive information because it will all have to go through a centralized administrator.

Google has been in the enterprise game for a little while, but it hasn’t been in the same league as some of the giants in the space like Oracle and Salesforce.com. They have enterprise applications — such as high-powered versions of Gmail with more governance features and more storage and some customer relationship management software options. It’s mostly served as a mechanism for companies selling enterprise software to deliver their services to other companies.

Back at Oracle Open World, Oracle’s chief executive Larry Ellison rolled a gigantic server onto the stage for his first keynote. “This is the cloud,” he said — referring to the company’s latest line of servers that are used to run private networks. And it cost around $1 million, for some of the best hardware. Oracle is targeting a bit of a different audience — Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies that need that kind of high-powered infrastructure to handle their computing requirements.

Google’s approach is different, but it doesn’t mean it’s trying to solve a different problem. Enterprise hardware management is a gigantic headache. Managing the software and what goes on inside the network is an even bigger headache. It’s extremely expensive — both in terms of sheer capital and in terms of the time lost to manage it.

And Google just threw out a giant bottle of aspirin.

Sundar Pichai, Google’s VP of product management for the Chrome web browser and Chrome OS, gave a quick overview of what to expect from Chromebooks today at the company’s I/O developer conference.

Pichai describes Chrome OS as “nothing but the web.” He says that the advantages of Chromebooks over traditional laptops include instant-on capabilities; always being connected to the web with built-in mobile broadband; an all-day-long battery; the ability to access files from anywhere; and built-in security capabilities.

Most importantly, Chromebooks will get faster over time, since they will automatically download system and app updates. That flies in the face of what consumers normally expect from their computers, which typically slow down thanks to malware, program bloat and the like.

Since many have been asking about Chrome OS’s offline capabilities, Pichai confirmed that the company is developing offline versions of Gmail, Google Calendar and Docs. He also reiterated that there are plenty of apps on the Chrome Web Store that work offline. Popular services like Hulu and Netflix will work out of the box, Pichai said (although I have no idea why they wouldn’t).

A Google representative also showed off some improvements made to Chrome OS since the CR-48 prototype notebooks began testing last year. The file browser is less confusing, and more similar to Windows Explorer now. Chrome OS also supports sending files directly to cloud services like Picasa Web albums and Dropbox. The OS can also handle music and video files easily.

Pichai went on to unveil two new Chrome OS devices from Samsung and Acer. The Samsung Chromebook features a 12.1-inch display, 8-second boot times and an 8-hour battery, while the Acer model offers a smaller 11.6-inch screen and 6.5 hours of battery life. The Samsung model will cost $399 for the Wi-Fi only version, and $499 with 3G connectivity, while the Acer model will sell for $449. Both Chromebooks will be available online from Best Buy and Amazon on June 15 in the US. They will also be launching in the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy at the same time.

Pichai said that the company has worked to make sure the trackpad problems of the CR-48 won’t reoccur with the new Chromebooks. Additionally, both the Samsung and Acer Chromebooks feature dual core processors, which will offer a substantial speed bump over the CR-48′s aging single core chip.

In addition to traditional the retail model, Pichai confirmed the rumored Chromebook subscription models for businesses and schools. Subscriptions will include the Chromebook hardware, web console, full support, and automatic hardware upgrades for $28 a month for businesses, and $20 a month for schools.

If true, the move has the potential to completely reshape the way consumers adopt computers, and it will also serve as a not-so-subtle Trojan horse for Google’s online offerings.

The $20 monthly fee will cover both hardware and online services for the laptops, which run Google’s web-centric Chrome OS software, the executive said. It will likely serve as a precursor to an enterprise Chrome laptop offering, wherein businesses pay a slight premium over their $50 annual fee for Google Apps (the company’s web-based Microsoft Office competitor suite).

The Chrome laptops will likely feature the same mobile broadband capabilities as the CR-48. That computer shipped with built-in 3G access and included 100 megabytes of monthly internet free for two years. You could also opt for daily unlimited internet for $10, 1 gigabyte of mobile internet for $20 a month, 3 GB for $35 a month, and 5 GB for $50 a month.

Aiming the Chrome laptop subscriptions at students seems like a good choice at first glance. After all, paying $20 a month for a computer beats spending $600 or more for a full-fledged laptop. But most students would have a hard time relying solely on the Chrome laptops, since they won’t have access to key Windows and Mac software that some courses may require. Like netbooks, the Chrome laptops could serve as secondary machines — assuming they’re light enough.

Google will also need to offer students something far better than its CR-48 laptop, which was heavy and had one of the worst trackpads ever forced upon a computer.

Reports of a Chrome laptop subscription plan go back a few weeks, when Neowin heard pretty much the same information Forbes did today from a “reliable source.” That report also noted that Google will upgrade the Chrome laptop hardware and offer hardware replacements for the life of the subscription.

The company will team up with Intel on a $200-$250 light-weight netbook featuring either Google’s Chrome operating system or Android Honeycomb 3.0, according to a Digitimes report based on sources from an Asus components maker.

The line of netbooks, the report states, will target people seeking a low-cost device primarily for work or Internet browsing and is said to have a June 2011 launch date. Asus plans to ship six million in 2011.

With iPad 2 launch sales close to 1 million in its first weekend, it’s arguable that Asus’ netbook strategy is too late to make a large enough impact to translate into success.

A low price point is perhaps the biggest advantage netbooks have over tablets to stay competitive. At roughly half the cost of wifi-only versions of the iPad 2 ($499) and Motorola Xoom ($599), an Asus low-cost netbook could reasonably grab a portion of the market.

But while it might be cost-effective to use Chrome OS — which hasn’t been in the news much since Google launched its Chrome OS pilot program — Asus would still be going on the assumption that people will want to use it.

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Unlike Google’s dearth of reading devices, Amazon’s new service snaps into the same “buy once, read everywhere” experience that the existing line-up has successfully offered: last-page read, bookmarks, notes, and highlights synced and automatically archived across all Kindle hardware and applications for third-party platforms such as iOS, Android, Blackberry and the like.

Kindle for the Web affords a few extra features too: since whole books can now be read in an embeddable reader applet, independent third-party publishers and authors can now preview and sell content directly on their own sites, earning them referral fees through Amazon’s Associates Program.

These fees are in fact the only thing that really separate Kindle for the Web from Google eBooks, which has not yet developed a third-party seller model in their product.

It’s actually hard to see why Google would enter the e-reading market without disruptive new distribution and revenue models, facing up against entrenched competition from Amazon and Barnes and Noble, which can clearly afford to experiment.

There may yet be sensible motivations behind Google bringing a knife to the proverbial gunfight. The company has already digitized nearly 15 million books since 2004 through its separate Google Books project, which allows them to commercially offer 3 million titles right at the outset (including almost 2 million free public domain titles).

They’re also already in the business of providing critical productivity and consumer services over the cloud. For the millions of people who have come to rely on these services, especially those using Android-based mobile devices, choosing Google eBooks as their e-reading experience of choice may be an intuitive choice. In this light, eBooks is just one pillar among many in the company’s cloud-centric strategy. That effort received quite a boost earlier today at the company’s Chrome OS event, which was surprisingly where Amazon chose to demo their new service. Despite competing directly with Google eBooks, it too will support the slew of upcoming cloud-centric Chrome OS notebooks.

I’m finally starting to understand why someone would buy one of these devices. Most of the discussion until now has been at a theoretical level, focusing on the idea of an operating system that exists almost entirely online — which sounds exciting but doesn’t necessarily translate to a must-buy for consumers.

Instead of summarizing the entire demo, I’m going to point out the three things that stood out for me as a consumer:

• Chrome OS is fast. This is something Google has been talking about for a while, but today the company gave a real taste of how fast Chrome OS devices can be. When you first set one up, you can get up-and-running in just 60 seconds (because it’s using Google account data that you’ve entered elsewhere), rather than the much longer install and set-up process on a normal computer. Google vice president of product management Sudar Pichai closed the netbook, allowing it to go to sleep, then when he opened it everything was working again within a second.And because most of the software is running online, rather than on local hardware, Google claims the computer won’t lose speed over time. Pichai said, “We want to deliver this experience where the computer forever feels new.”
• Chrome OS means you can access your applications and data on any device. Since Chrome OS is, in Pichai’s words, “nothing but the Web,” it doesn’t seem to be unlocking any cloud capabilities that you couldn’t already use with Google’s Chrome Web browser. However, using a Chrome device really forces you into that online lifestyle. All of your apps and your files are stored online, because you literally can’t install them on your computer. When you need to access your stuff on another device, or if you lose your old computer, that won’t be a problem.Pichai demonstrated a Chrome OS device and a Windows PC, both open to a page listing the Chrome apps that he had installed. He uninstalled an app on the Chrome device, and the change was instantly reflected on the Windows device.
• Chrome OS devices are always connected to the Internet. Besides using WiFi, Google said today that Chrome netbooks will be connected to Verizon’s data network. You’ll get 100 megabytes free very month, and after that plans start at $9.99 per month. (The price for the actual computers hasn’t been announced yet.) There’s no contract or long-term commitment.In comparison, I currently use a Verizon 3G card to connect my laptop to the Internet, and it costs $60 a month, comes with a two-year contract, and I’ve already lost the card twice.

The topic came up at a Chrome OS press event in San Francisco, where a reporter asked if Chrome OS might be a better operating system than Android for tablet. The Chrome OS pilot device and the consumer launch devices are netbooks, but Google has hinted that Chrome OS might work on other devices eventually.

Pichai answered that Chrome OS and Android represent “two different approaches to computing.” He noted that Google is making both operating systems available via open source, so both can (and have been) adopted by a variety of manufacturing partners.

“Having said that, we want the market and the users to use what they want,” Pichai said. “As long as it’s Google — both of them are Google products — we’ll be pretty happy.”

On the tablet question, Pichai said Google is moving “one step at a time” and is currently working with netbook partners. He noted that Chrome OS doesn’t require a physical keyboard to work, so theoretically it should work on a tablet.

Pichai also said that Google has to answer this question all the time. I would argue that’s because the answer seems to change. Initially, all the discussion of Chrome versus Android focused on phones versus netbooks, then it shifted to Chrome’s focus on the Web (it’s basically just a version of the Chrome browser that runs on a netbook) versus Android’s downloadable applications. Last month, Eric Schmidt said Google doesn’t want to impose an answer, but that “the Android solution is particularly optimized for things that involve touch in some form, and Chrome OS appears to be for keyboard-based solutions.”

Ultimately, the confusion may not be a huge deal. I suspect consumers will care less about how Chrome OS compares to Android and more about whether a Chrome netbook does what they want it to.

Front photo via Danny Sullivan

Previous reports predicted a limited Chrome OS launch, perhaps with a Google-branded device coming at the end of this year, with a bigger release due in 2011. That’s close to what Google announced today.

Sundar Pichai, a vice president of product management at Google, said that the first Chrome OS devices will come from manufacturers Acer and Samsung in the middle of next year. In part, that’s because Google is still finalizing some of the features like CloudPrint (I’ll cover Chrome OS’ features in a separate post), Pichai said. At the same time, many of the company’s employees are already using Chrome OS netbooks, so Pichai said Google is going to make the software available to the public for testing.

The pilot program will use an unbranded netbook device from Google. It will have a 12.1-inch display, built-in 3G mobile Internet as well as WiFi, and will support more than eight hours of active use, Pichai said. But he added “the hardware only exists to test the software.” Google says it only has a limited numbers of devices, but you can apply for one at this website. There will be a separate business pilot program providing netbooks to companies like Virgin America.

It sounds like VentureBeat will be getting a test copy too, which we will of course post about. Try not to be too jealous.

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But don’t expect to get your hands on one anytime soon. Apparently, there will only be around 65,000 units produced, and those will go to Google’s closest “friends and family.” It’s a testing method the company has already used for its Nexus S Android phone, and which it seems to be using for its upcoming Nexus S phone. The version of Chrome OS on the devices will also be an early beta release that’s not quite ready for prime time, so Google wouldn’t want to sell the netbooks to general consumers.

The news follows our report from early November that speculated Google was set to launch Chrome OS smartbooks during that month. Many of the details from that report seem to be validated with this latest news — namely the low production amounts, and that the devices will be manufactured by Taiwanese firm Inventec. That earlier report was wrong about the first Chrome OS device being a smartbook though — it’s apparently running an Intel Atom Pine Trail processor, like a typical netbook, and not a cellphone processor as smartbooks generally do.

All Things Digital is also reporting that Google is gearing up to launch its Chrome App Store on December 7th, which would house web apps that would work on Chrome OS, as well as Chrome browsers on any platform. What better way to launch your app store than with a shiny new device?

Chrome OS and other devices running it won’t be available to consumers until 2011. Hopefully by then, Google can get a better sense of what it actually wants to do with Chrome OS. We reported last week that Google executives still don’t have a clear way to define the OS.

Acer recently told Engadget that it won’t be releasing Chrome OS devices until 2011 but that Google has something up its sleeve for December of this year. The Times says that’s when Google plans to release a Google-branded Chrome device, which will be manufactured by another company.

With the launch so close, you’d think Google would have a clear message about how the operating system fits into its product lineup, particularly since it already has Android. At almost every Google press event involving Android and/or Chrome, someone will inevitably ask how Android stacks up against Chrome OS. At first, it seemed like they were obviously different, since Android was developed for mobile phones while Chrome was built for netbooks (low-end laptops). Still, Google has suggested that it wants to take both operating systems beyond their initial devices, for example with Android-based tablets.

Back in June, even Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer admitted confusion about Chrome vs. Android. Ray Ozzie, who was then the company’s chief software architect, argued that Chrome was a bet on the future, because it’s all about the Internet cloud, while Android is more old-fashioned.

Here’s chief executive Eric Schmidt’s latest attempt at an answer — it’s from the Times article but echoes statements he made at the Web 2.0 Summit last week:

We don’t want to call the question and say this one does one thing, this one does another. So far the model seems to be the Android solution is particularly optimized for things that involve touch in some form and Chrome OS appears to be for keyboard-based solutions.

That’s one answer, I suppose, but it lacks the pizazz of Ozzie’s visionary language, and it also doesn’t have much to do with the initial pitch of Chrome as an operating system fully based in the cloud — i.e., one where everything resides online, and there are no applications or files on your computer — suggesting the keyboard bit is almost an afterthought.

Why the switch? I’m guessing that on the one hand, Google doesn’t want to pitch Android as an anti-cloud operating system, and on the other hand, the company might have a hard time selling Chrome OS on the no-native-apps angle (at one point in the article, Google’s Sundar Pichai said people’s first impression of Chrome OS will be, “It’s just a browser,” to which he says, “Exactly.”) when app-dominated operating systems like Android and Apple’s iOS are on the rise.

After Google launched its mobile operating system, Android, it put out a phone of its own, the Nexus One, as a model for other manufacturers to follow. It may be planning to repeat that strategy now by first launching its own Chrome OS smartbook, which will then be followed up by entries from HP and Acer. Digitimes credits “sources from component players” — the companies who build the individual parts for products — with the information.

The site says that Google’s Chrome OS device will be manufactured by Taiwanese firm Inventec and that initial shipments will be around 60,000 to 70,000 units. Google won’t be selling the device through stores, so it’s likely going to be something you purchase online, like the Nexus One.

Digitimes says that Google’s Chrome OS smartbook will likely be based on an ARM mobile processor. Chrome OS is a web-focused operating system designed for netbooks, but Google has previously mentioned the possibility of bringing it to other device types like smartbooks and tablets.

After Google launches its Chrome OS device, HP and Acer will announce their entries, which will be manufactured by Quanta Computer. Asus is apparently still “observing the market.” There’s no word on potential pricing yet, but we can expect the first generation of Chrome OS devices to be somewhere between $200 and $400. Being free is a major benefit of the OS, so it wouldn’t make sense to price them higher than netbooks.

Google has long said that Chrome OS would likely be ready by the end of this year, so a product launch this month certainly isn’t out of the question. Earlier this year, we reported that Acer was gearing up to launch Chrome OS devices in June. While that report was a bit premature, our sources did manage to confirm that Asus Chrome OS machines existed — the company was just waiting for the OS to mature before it launched.

Now that Google and Verizon seem to be best buddies, given their joint policy proposal for net neutrality, it’s not surprising at all that they would work together to release an iPad competitor. And let’s not forget that Verizon is also home to the successful Droid Android phones.

The source tells Download Squad that the device will be built by HTC, which also built the Nexus One, Evo 4G, and Droid Incredible Android phones. There’s no word on specifications yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see the tablet running Nvidia’s Tegra 2 platform, with a 10-inch screen, and a front-facing camera for video conferencing.

We previously reported that Acer was planning to launch Chrome OS devices in June. That didn’t end up happening, but further reports pointed to Acer readying Chrome OS tablets.

The information is still mostly rumor, but a November release date would fall in line with when Google expected to release Chrome OS, and would also be perfectly coordinated with its Chrome Web app store launch. Debuting the device on Black Friday would also be somewhat brilliant for Google. It’s a day when consumers are ready to spend like crazy, and it would also make the tablet one of the most hotly anticipated devices of this holiday season.

Google spoke to gaming press at the Game Developers Conference Europe, where it unveiled further details on the mechanics of the store and announced that it’s “most likely” expected to launch in October, gaming site 1Up.com reports.

The store resembles a web-based version of the iTunes App Store, and unsurprisingly, it will rely on Google Checkout to simplify app purchases. Google stressed how simple it will be for developers to build apps for the store: They simply need to create a web app, build a wrapper for it (icons and metadata), and upload it to the store. The app is then automatically approved and published.

One interesting change is that Google won’t be seeking revenue sharing when the store launches — instead, it’s charging a mere 5 percent processing fee. This is in stark contrast to the iTunes store, where Apple takes a 30 percent cut from every transaction. The move is likely meant to encourage developers to populate the store with their apps. At launch, the store will support both free and paid apps, free trials, subscriptions, and third-party in-app payment methods for microtransactions. In the first half of 2011, it will support currency other than the U.S. dollar and will get a built-in solution for in-app transactions.

Since the presentation was meant for gaming press, Google didn’t skimp on the games it showed off for the store. It showed off Plants vs. Zombies, and Lego Star Wars — both of which are built in Adobe Flash — and discussed the potential for HTML5 games, including the popular strategy game Freeciv.net. The presentation also briefly touched on the HTMl5 version of Quake 2 that some Google Web Toolkit developers ported.

A web app store may seem superfluous for most users — and as Wired’s Chris Anderson might argue, it’s probably contributing to the death of the web. But I don’t think it’s meant for general Chrome users. The web store will most likely sit at the heart of Google’s upcoming Chrome OS — a lightweight web-centric operating system meant for netbooks and tablets. Since Chrome OS won’t have much in the way of local applications, users will need a centralized location to find web-based apps.

Check out a video below of Google game developer advocate Mark DeLoura talking about the benefits of Chrome for gaming:
http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1

Jolicloud, the netbook and web services-focused operating system by Netvibes founder Tariq Krim, has finally launched with an official version 1.0 release.

The Linux-based OS was originally announced in 2008 and has gone through extensive public and private testing since then. It’s built to install seamlessly on most major netbook brands, with no need for extra driver or software downloads. It relies heavily on web applications, instead of local programs, which makes it perfect for slower devices like netbooks. Version 1.0 adds support for touchscreens (a good sign for eventual tablet support), a simplified Windows installer, and an HTML5-based application launcher.

Setup for Jolicloud is simple: Simply download and run the tiny installer, and follow the on-screen instructions to create a dual-boot installation of Jolicloud and Windows. Alternatively, you can download an image file to create an installation CD, or create a bootable USB flash drive.

In my experience with a Jolicloud beta, the installation took less than 20 minutes, and performance throughout the OS was surprisingly fast on my anemic netbook. Now that it’s more refined, I suspect it can end up replacing Windows as the go-to netbook OS for many users.

The operating system is a direct competitor to Google’s upcoming Chrome OS, which is also meant for notebooks (and potentially tablets). But the company doesn’t feel threatened — in our previous coverage, a spokesperson said that Google Chrome “validates” what they are doing.

With Netvibes, Krim managed to create a personalized startup page site with a massive widget (or web application) ecosystem. In many ways, Netvibes acted as an online operating system — bringing access to services like Twitter and Facebook into one convenient location. Now with Jolicloud, it looks like Krim’s taking that concept a step further — now, for the most part, the web is the operating system.

The company is based in Paris, France, and raised $4.2 million in funding last year.

“”There are going to be unique innovations coming up in the marketplace in two, three years, with a new form of computing, we want to be on that forefront,” he said. “So with Chrome or Android or anything like that we want to be one of the leaders.”

Madha wouldn’t make any specific announcements, but we expect to hear more closer to Chrome OS’s release this fall. Our previous report tagged HP as another company looking closely at Chrome OS, and we know that Acer is hard at work on its own devices using the OS.

Dell has adopted Google’s Android operating system in its upcoming Streak tablet, its Mini 3i smartphones in China, and it will also be seen in Dell’s upcoming Thunder smartphone. Buzz on the Streak has been great (despite it being a bit too large to use as a cellphone), so it’s no surprise that Dell would want to scope out Google’s other OS offerings.

While our story on Acer unveiling Chrome OS devices at Computex, the big Taiwanese trade show for computer manufacturers, didn’t pan out the way our sources had led us to believe it would, we do know that Acer is hard at work at devices featuring Google’s Web-centric operating system. Now it appears that Dell and HP may be among the first Chrome OS adopters as well, according to Download Squad.

The site has found files on a repository for Chromium OS, the open-source development version of Chrome OS, which pointed to specific configurations for Acer, Dell, and HP. The highlighted “overlay-x68″ files above are responsible for hardware support during the OS build process.

In November, Dell showed off an experimental build of Chrome OS that ran on its Mini 10v netbook, with an early implementation of WiFi support. HP also recently showed off its implementation of Google’s Cloud Print technology, which would allow Chrome OS and Android users to print. And while Acer denied it was working on a Chrome OS netbook shortly after our initial story, further reports hinted that the company was actually bringing the operating system to tablets. In short, it wouldn’t be a huge surprise to see these three companies among the first to announce Chrome OS devices.

[Image via Download Squad]

On stage at the Wall Street Journal-backed annual tech conference held in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., Ballmer discussed Microsoft’s competitors in the mobile industry. He said Android is significant on phones, though he’s not sure whether it will become a big deal on other devices.

Speaking of those other devices, Ballmer said he doesn’t understand why Google has both Chrome and Android. (Chrome began as an operating system for netbooks while Android targeted phones, but Google has plans for both to spread, so you could have Android netbooks and Chrome or Android tablets.) Microsoft is always struggling to bring more coherence to its operating systems, Ballmer pointed out, so why is Google starting out incoherent?

Luckily, Microsoft Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie was on hand to answer Ballmer’s question: “Android is a bet on the past. Chrome is a bet on the future.” Android is still about installing applications on a specific device. Chrome OS is designed for a future where everything is online, in the cloud.

Still, Ballmer repeated his assertion that doing two operating systems is confusing. His advice to Google: Make one bet and pursue it.

Not that Ballmer should be feeling too confident himself, with Android and especially the iPhone outshining Windows. Ballmer said Microsoft has lost its lead and “missed a whole cycle,” but the team has been cleaned up, and Microsoft is going to execute consistently on its new ideas.

[image:AllThingsD]

Don’t miss MobileBeat 2010, VentureBeat’s conference on the future of mobile. The theme: “The year of the superphone and who will profit.” Now expanded to two days, MobileBeat 2010 will take place on July 12-13 at The Palace Hotel in San Francisco. Register now. Tickets are going quickly. For complete conference details, or to apply for the MobileBeat Startup Competition, click here.

Google employees tell the Times that the company started promoting the idea of moving away from the Microsoft operating system in January, following the recent attacks on its Chinese operations. Since then, many workers have migrated from Windows, and new employees are being given the choice of Mac or Linux computers. “Getting a new Windows machine now requires CIO approval,” said one employee.

Windows has long been the bane of  IT workers, thanks to the fact that it’s vulnerable to many types of viruses and malware, and is often targeted by hackers due its large install base. The attack that originated from China used malware that targeted Windows PCs running Internet Explorer 6 — an old version of the web browser that’s particularly vulnerable to hacking. Apple’s Mac OS, and Linux operating systems, are far more secure in comparison to Windows.

When faced with an attack like this, most organizations would normally promote updating Windows computers away from older browsers, and remind employees about the importance of running Windows Update to keep their computer as secure as possible. Google has apparently taken that a step further by moving employees away from Windows altogether. I wouldn’t be surprised to see other organizations follow suit, particularly since most IT professionals would prefer not to deal with the daily headache of Windows problems.

In addition to being a security effort, the move away from Windows would also help the company to promote the use of its own products among employees. Its Chrome OS, for example, would be a worthy competitor to Windows on netbooks and ultra-portable laptops.

When asked for comment about the news, a Google representative told VentureBeat, “We’re always working to improve the efficiency of our business, but we do not comment on specific operational matters.”

This might sound a little familiar. That’s because we ran a report last week that Acer planned to launch Chrome OS devices at the Computex conference from June 1 to 5. But then Acer denied the story.

So what the heck is going on? Frankly, when Acer published its denial, we weren’t sure ourselves — we only knew that we trusted our sources. But let’s take a closer look at the language we used last week:

We don’t yet know what devices Acer will be launching. Chrome OS is designed for netbooks, but Google has also mentioned the possibility of bringing it to other device types like smartbooks and tablets running ARM processors.

Somehow, that wording got transformed in Acer’s denial, which read:

Despite recent rumours in the press regarding the launch of Chrome OS based netbooks at Computex, Acer today confirms that it has no short-term plans for such a product.

And now we have a report that isn’t about netbooks at all — it’s about tablets, an even hotter category for portable computing. Taiwan Economic News (a site that is apparently affiliated with a large newspaper conglomerate in Taiwan) said that Acer is working on a Chrome OS tablet with another Taiwanese device manufacturer, Quanta Computer.

Now, it’s still possible that our story was wrong and that the misinformation that reached our sources has been picked up by other news organizations. On the other hand, it seems telling that Acer was so careful in the wording of its denial.

I’ve left a message with the company’s San Jose office and will update if I hear back.

[Additional reporting by Matthaus Krzykowski]

We don’t yet know what devices Acer will be launching. Chrome OS is designed for netbooks, but Google has also mentioned the possibility of bringing it to other device types like smartbooks and tablets running ARM processors. Smartbooks look like netbooks but run processors like those from ARM which are designed for mobile devices. Recently, there’s been talk of Samsung developing ARM-based smartbooks running Chrome OS, as well as support for nVidia Tegra 2 devices.

It’s still unclear how Chrome OS-equipped netbooks will coexist with those running Google’s Android mobile operating system. We’ve known since early 2009 that Android netbooks would begin popping up this year, and even Acer announced its intention to sell them.

My prediction? Google will probably settle on Android for tablets eventually — it’s already built for multitouch support, and its analogous to Apple bringing the iPhone OS to the iPad. Android’s small footprint also makes it easy to use in integrated devices, like Google’s upcoming “Dragonpoint”  TV project with Sony and Intel. Chrome OS, which is clearly better suited for devices with keyboards and trackpads, will find itself on more netbooks and smartbooks. Last year, Google CEO Eric Schmidt mentioned that the two projects will merge over time (see Google’s graphic below), so eventually the differences might not matter.

Google initially planned to release Chrome OS sometime in the second half of this year. Acer’s Chrome OS device launch in early June fits into that schedule, although we’re not sure when those devices will be available for purchase.

[Image via PhysOrg]

Google today answered a longstanding question today about its web-centric netbook operating system, Chrome OS: How do you print? Its solution is Google Cloud Print, a web-based method for handling print jobs in web applications, and web-enabled platforms like Chrome OS, Android, and even the iPhone.

Instead of using local printer drivers and software to manage print jobs, Cloud Print will enable any application that can get online to print to any printer. In effect, what Google is proposing is the next stage in printing technology.

Using its Cloud Print APIs (tools which allow developers to take advantage of the technology) developers can make their desktop, web, or mobile applications communicate with  Google’s Cloud Print Service. Google also expects that others will build up their own cloud print services as well. In particular, large businesses, universities, and other organizations could find it worthwhile to build their own cloud print services for internal use, because it simplifies the process of supporting many printers across multiple platforms.

Users can associate their printers with Google’s print service using their Google accounts. The printers are handled similarly to documents in Google Docs, which means that they will be incredibly easy to share with others. This is yet another major benefit over current printer technology, which is far more difficult than it should be to share.

Cloud Print will support all printers currently in use today (Google calls them “legacy printers”), and “cloud-aware” printers, which don’t exist yet. A cloud-aware printer will have native support for cloud services, and doesn’t need to be connected to a computer to function. Google hopes that its Cloud Print technology will spur current printer manufacturers like HP, Canon, and Lexmark, into adopting open standards and building cloud-aware printers that will be compatible with its service, and other cloud printing services down the line. In this way, Cloud Print is very similar to Google’s other recent products which aim to direct the course of technological innovation — like Google Public DNS, and even Chrome OS itself.

As for legacy printers — which currently includes everything from old inkjet printers, to more modern ones that are networked and feature web access — Google is developing a method which will allow them to communicate with Cloud Print using a proxy. The printers will still need to be connected to computers to work, but the proxy software will allow you to share it with others, and will let you easily print from your mobile devices. Google is currently working on integrating the proxy software into Chrome on Windows, and will work on Mac and Linux versions eventually.

More modern printers could be updated eventually to become cloud-aware, and Google is hoping that printer manufacturers will be motivated to update their hardware. Some manufacturers have implemented their own cloud printing solutions, like HP’s CloudPrint, but they usually involve some interaction with a desktop to function.

There will probably be some push-back from printing companies, who have never really worked together in the past to move the printing industry forward, and are probably hesitant about jumping into bed with Google. But given the rise of smartphones, as well as the general headache that surrounds computer printing these days, it doesn’t seem like they have much of a choice.

[As a disclosure, I am a former Google employee, having worked there from 2002 to 2008, but I don't have any inside information on this project. In fact I didn't even know of its existence before I left.]

Google has two main aims with this project:

• To use the Google brand and buzz about its “game-changing OS” to push for new and better web apps using nascent technology. This lets Google reduce its customers’ dependence on local apps it does not control.
• Once a lot of these apps are deployed and become heavily used, the mass market will force owners of closed systems like the iPhone to implement support for HTML-5, the latest version of HTML, and rich web interfaces. Coupled with net neutrality (which Google currently strongly supporting) this will allow Google to circumvent uncooperative devices and network providers, and access consumers currently hidden behind locked system.

Here is a more detailed analysis:

People are switching to netbooks in droves. Ever since the advent of AJAX and Web 2.0, a great number of things that people used to do using local apps are being done by web-based applications. This transformation is by no means complete; it is clear that many interfaces are not refined and much critical functionality is absent, but the trend is undeniable.

Modern operating systems have very rich interfaces that give application developers and users a great deal of power. This is great in some ways — it lets you write awesome local applications, and offers great performance. However, as Spiderman’s Uncle Ben said, “With great power comes great responsibility.” A rich interface provides ample opportunities for unforeseen consequences, bugs, viruses and other bad things.

As power and performance becomes less important (computers are getting faster, and word processing isn’t getting any more CPU intensive), it is becoming more difficult to justify all the extra responsibility. Although hardware and user-facing software has changed incredibly over the past three decades, operating systems are remarkably stagnant – virtual memory really hasn’t changed much in 15 years, and from the user’s perspective, file systems haven’t changed much since the days of UNIX, in the 1970s.

Motivations:

People these days mostly use their computers for a few key things: Internet browsing, dealing with email, writing documents, writing spreadsheets, playing music, watching video, and editing photos. As increasing numbers of people join the online world (especially in developing countries), users need to stay as happy with their Internet-related experiences. More happy users lead to more searches and more advertising revenue.

Google needs to ensure that the web and everything people use to access the web stays as open as possible. If closed ecosystems dominated by unfriendly companies, such as Apple (and its iPhone), and Microsoft (with Windows desktop and mobile) gain power, Google won’t have unfettered access to the end-user. To do challenge them, Google needs to reduce switching costs and make users indifferent about which computing devices they use by commodifying them. The Chrome OS plan is to entice users to move as much data as possible into the “cloud”, making the data and apps transparently follow the user onto whatever device he or she happens to be using.

Goals:

Google realizes that if this momentum towards cloud-based computing stalls, it will be in a difficult position — it will depend on others for its access to customers. So success of Chrome OS is not really about whether a lot of people use Chrome OS!

Instead, success (or failure) will be measured by the creation of new and better web apps using HTML-5 and HTML-5-related technology. This will allow Google to reduce dependence on local apps it does not and cannot control. (By the way, HTML-5 is the latest version of HTML, and will allow web sites to add offline storage — the ability to store data in your browser for use when disconnected from the internet — better video playback and graphics support, along with interaction between different documents.)

Let me repeat this: Success is not about whether a lot of people use Chrome OS. It’s about whether a lot of people end up using Web applications. This is a simple conclusion, really, but very profound. Even if everyone ends up using some other OS, as long as all the apps they use are web-based, Google wins, because its products can compete on a level playing field. Instead of building special applications that run on your OS and store files through proprietary methods, a web application will run on any device, making them the same from the consumer’s perspective. Critically, enhancements proposed in HTML-5 will allow them to run offline as well as online. (In fact, Chrome OS, being open source, will probably be forked into a less proprietary system distributed by any number of parties. Even if this hurts the user base of Google Chrome, Google wins.)

Obstacles facing Chrome OS:

One of the largest looming issues for Chrome OS is the planned lack of local file system support. For various reasons (some copyright-related) most people store their music and movies locally on their hard drives. Removing local filesystems will reduce the difficulty of using the system but will pose huge problems for movies, photos, and music. Unless a decent web-based solution for this problem is invented soon, Chrome OS’ usefulness might be limited. The dearth of good photo editing solutions online is really no different than the poor quality of web applications — they will need to improve.

Moving down this path implies the users’ data will almost completely be stored primarily in the cloud. Having all their data concentrated in one location might give users pause: What if the service is unavailable when the data are needed? What if the service goes out of business or is hacked? These perceptions will need to be handled effectively.

What about Android?

Android, Google’s operating system for mobile phones, is going to be BIG. Google desperately needs to prevent the iPhone from building increasing global market dominance in its current form. Android already provides a better hardware abstraction layer, better testing, limited interfaces, better security and includes a full-fledged browser. It satisfies pretty much all of the requirements set out by the public docs of Chrome OS, and already includes support for local applications. In two years, there will be an even larger group of Android apps available. Looking at why Google wants to create a new OS and not simply co-opt (or even fork) Android provides the most convincing evidence of my hypothesis yet — that Google is more concerned about the proliferation of web apps than the wide adoption of Chrome OS.

Here are motivations people have raised for separating Chrome OS and Android:

• Too many uses of Android will slow development on the OS internally. This may have a little bit of truth, but I think it’s not a good reason. Linux survives multiple changes to the source code from all kinds of people doing all kinds of different things with it, and it doesn’t slow down development that much. This is certainly true now that Linux is stable, but is probably true of its earlier, less solid stages too.
• People use touch-screen devices differently than keyboard-and-mouse-only devices. This may be true, but what evidence is there that touch-screens won’t be on most netbooks within two years? If one wants to build a browser-based device, one should keep in mind that a touch screen is far more useful than a mouse.
• Android isn’t ready for use on desktops. It’s too hard to get to work on different processors. This is a weaker argument — a lot of people have already ported Android to Atom processors, and there doesn’t seem to be much trouble getting it to run.
• Adding a very different hardware platform will make UI and app design too hard. This is a pretty good argument. Supporting widely disparate hardware is not going to be trivial for app developers — the wide distribution in Android version and hardware configurations is already causing some angst. There’s no need to insist that all applications run on an Android notebook.
• Android is for things with small screens you can make calls on. Chrome OS is for other things. Also a decent argument. In the next few years, Google Voice, Skype, and pervasive Internet will mean that phone and video calls will certainly be made from notebooks. Besides, any optimization you would make to Chrome OS to speed up browsing could easily be made to the Android codebase. Most of Android’s codebase is not designed to deal with calls, but with enhanced security, easy application development, and maximization of battery life — all things that Chrome OS will need.

Conclusions:

While Google would really love to have a large user base, even a Chrome OS with few users will not be a failure. The number of installs is secondary to the number of web-based applications that it fosters. Google will do everything in its power to make this happen. This includes building better web apps and cloud-based storage tools itself, and using its brand to scare other companies into building apps (for fear of missing out when Chrome OS gets big).

If Google promoted Android instead of Chrome OS, this strategy would not work; developers would simply focus on building Android apps. Android apps would help Google’s phones and make Android netbooks work nicely, but would not help Google penetrate other established and closed ecosystems. Getting the same apps to work across platforms is the key to success because it allows hardware commodification and easy migration paths between the systems.

And this is why Google is building Chrome OS.

Vijay Pandurangan worked for Google for six years, designing and implementing some of the core systems infrastructure for the company as well as parts of the ads system. He now runs a consulting firm called Olima Ventures and is an angel investor. You can read his blog here and follow him on Twitter here.

Google’s Chrome OS is bound to spark significant debate at MobileBeat2009, our mobile industry conference next week (July 16) in San Francisco. At 8:45am, I’ll be opening with a fireside chat that includes Google Vice President of Engineering Vic Gundotra (pictured left). Gundotra has become perhaps the most articulate Google spokesman on the future of the operating system. He recently declared the Web “has won,” in other words, it’s now more efficient to do your computing tasks from a Web-based operating system, such as Chrome OS, than one that rests of your desktop, such as Microsoft’s Windows. That’s because a Web-based OS gives you direct access to the Web, and so it can be more dynamic and flexible, or so the argument goes.

To be sure, we just checked in with Google, and they’re saying that aside from their announcement blog post last night, they’re not saying too much more about the Chrome OS. But the new OS is going to be the elephant in the room regardless, so I’ll do my best to get Gundotra talking.

Chrome OS will also likely stir things up on other panels, specifically on the one entitled “New Devices,” which runs 11am to noon. That’s where we’ll discuss the emerging craze around netbooks and other devices (the Amazon Kindle, etc). All of these new devices are seeking ways to differentiate themselves — with manufacturers seeking to bundle in different sorts of software. The “personal cloud” has become a major theme, where netbook manufacturers begin to let you store all your data on the cloud in special data plans that come as part of your package. In that discussion, we’ll be hearing from major players, such as Jason Lim from Microsoft’s mobile division (below right, seen speaking in February on a panel in Barcelona); Keith Kressin of Qualcomm, the industry’s largest wireless supplier; Michael Rayfield of Nvidia, the graphic chip maker, and Donald Pitt of Samsung, who will explain how the world’s largest conglomerate plans to deliver new devices.

Of course, with Google now pushing its Chrome OS, to be unveiled later this year, and to be available to run in devices next year, device makers may now scramble to adopt Chrome OS for their netbooks, seeing it as the most flexible operating system to offer these services. After all, they’re already scrambling to embed Google’s other operating system, Android, into their smartphones.

Indeed, Google says its Chrome OS is first intended to run on netbooks, the hot-selling devices that are smaller than laptops. However, eventually Google wants it also to run on larger devices such as full-blown PCs. For the time being, Google appears to prefer that Chrome OS, rather than Android, its existing OS for mobile devices, run on netbooks. (Last year, VentureBeat first demonstrated that Android was flexbile enough to be used on netbooks. This led to a series of pieces about how Android could run on all kinds of devices, not just high-end mobile phones for which is what Google was primarily marketing Android.) However, Google was always curiously quiet on that front, and now we know why: It never intended to push Android beyond the smartphone. In fact, Google says competition between the two systems will help to drive innovation.

Also speaking on the morning MobileBeat2009 fireside chat (entitled “The Recipe for a Winning Mobile Platform”) will be Nokia board member Tero Ojanpera, who runs Nokia’s application store, Ovi. Nokia, which has dominated the mobile phone market for years, is under incredible pressure to respond to the proliferation of cool smartphones running on more flexible operating systems, such as Google’s Android. Also speaking at the fireside chat will be Michael Abbott, senior vice president of application services and devices for Palm — the first time a Palm executive has spoken since the launch of the Pre.

Next, we’ll have Google executive Eric Chu, who is responsible for driving the application ecosystem for phones operating on Google’s Android. Chu leads Android developer initiatives, and communications with partners Open Handset Alliance. He’ll likely be able to shed more light on how Google plans to market Chrome OS differently from Android. He’ll be speaking at 4:30pm to 5:15pm on the panel entitled “What will the gatekeepers do now?: The App store and beyond.” He’ll be joined by Venetia Espinoza, of T-Mobile, the carrier that has so far been the biggest supporter of Android.

Among other things, we’ll be talking about the growing tension between Google and Apple, as Google pushes a web-oriented mobile industry, and Apple seeks to protect its control over an embedded application-centric world. The list of areas where Google and Apple compete just keeps getting longer: Apple’s iPhone vs. Google’s Android, Apple’s Safari browser vs. Google’s Chrome, Apple laptops vs. Android netbooks, and now, Apple’s operating system vs. Chrome OS.

The rest of the day will be rounded out with speakers from the entire mobile ecosystem. We’ll have all the world’s major carriers represented (the four big U.S carriers, AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Verizon, as well as the two biggest international carriers, Vodafone and ChinaMobile). We’ll also have the top operating system vendors, device makers, investors, mobile advertising companies and agencies, and content players speaking. More information here. Go here for your ticket. We’re capping this at 400 attendees, and remaining tickets are selling very fast.

Finally, we’re really thankful for the sponsorship support from so many mobile industry leaders, for making this all possible: Qualcomm, Velti, AdMob, GetJar, Symbian, beamME, Sun Microsystems, Greystripe, Mozes, Nvidia and SGN. We’ve got an amazing lineup of new startups planning to launch in the startup competition, and a reception planned with a live band featuring Latin jazz from Michael Cerda’s group. Cerda runs CC:Betty, and we’re also expecting Betty to be walking around, if not getting down to the music

[Vic Gundotra image credit: Designbyfront]