Google’s soon-to-launch ChromeOS could be a “game changer,” Steve Yelvington predicts. The cloud-centric operating system, which will run Web-based apps, is expected to appear on netbooks early next year.
But, as Yelvington points out, ChromeOS Web apps are of interest beyond the netbook:
“ChromeOS apps will run equally well on the iPad, Android tablets, the coming Blackberry PlayBook, and your old Windows and MacOS computers. All you need is a modern browser. In fact, Blackberry has announced it’s discouraging the development of proprietary applications, favoring HTML5.”
A handful of media Web apps were unveiled last week in the new ChromeOS Web store. The apps available there, including offerings from NPR, The New York Times, USA Today and Sports Illustrated, are intended for readers using the Chrome Web browser. But most will also work, to varying degrees, on the iPad and other tablets.
If you have an iPad, try the New York Times app in the tablet’s Safari browser. It feels like a native app, but is written in HTML5 and therefore viewable on any standard browser on any platform.
As Yelvington writes, “Think about what this means. Everything works everywhere.” If consumers and developers jump on that bandwagon, that would be a game changer.
