Chrome OS Netbooks Expected Be Bundled With Carrier Contracts

Tweet

Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently spoke during the Atmosphere Cloud Computing forum and in-turn he spilled a little more information as to what we can expect in terms of Chrome OS and the netbooks that will be running it. As for now, the release time frame is still as was originally expected — sometime towards the end of 2010. Of course, its likely that it will take a little longer to get specific devices to market.

As for the new information, to begin with, Eric Schmidt mentioned that Google will be dog-fooding this launch and they are finding themselves having to rewrite some software in order to make it Chrome OS ready.

But perhaps a little more important as compared to Google doing internal testing is the pricing and availability. As of now Schmidt has suggested that the Chrome OS based netbooks should be priced similar to the current netbook prices, or somewhere between $300 and $400. That said, he was careful to mention (in regards to price) that “it will be up to the manufacturers that do it.”

Going on to state that the pricing will come down to hardware costs such as for the processor and glass, noting that Chrome OS is free “so there is not software tax associated with all of this.”

Of course, in the end you may also be able to get a Chrome OS netbook for less than the $300 to $400 estimate with a carrier agreement attached. The Google CEO seemed to be more than happy to work with the carriers, stating that “if a phone company chose to do that then that would be great.” Great indeed, well, except for the fact that you will be stuck with that device for two years.

Personally I am excited about seeing a Chrome OS netbook, but would rather see a Chrome OS tablet. So far though we have seen some plans as well as rumors for each.