A new browser, a new OS and a new store seem to be on the agenda for Google next week.
Update: Yep, we’ve got our invites. See you on the 7th for the ChomeOS launch!
Engadgetis reporting that December 7 is the launch date for ChromeOS and there will even be a few thousand ChromeOS laptops available to Google’s (GOOG) closest friends. The OS is still in Beta and there won’t be products ready for the holidays.
Multiple sources have told us that Google will be holding some sort of event on Tuesday, December 7th — we’re not sure if it’ll be a live event, a webcast, or something else entirely — and that the shindig will see the launch of that Google-branded Chrome OS netbook we’ve been hearing about. Again, we’ve heard that the Atom-powered laptop isn’t going to be a mass market device — there will only be around 65,000 units available to Google’s closest “friends and family” — and that the Cloud-based OS is still very much in a beta, non-consumer-friendly state.
It would make sense that the Chrome Store, Google’s gateway to purchasing web apps would be launched beside the OS. And we saw yesterday (though with little fanfare) Google had updated its ChromeOS to version 8. We know Google has high hopes for ChromeOS, with one spokesperson saying that Chrome could immediately replace 60% of Windows PCs in the workplace.
Gingerbread, the next version of the Android OS is also due from Google in the coming days/weeks, so if there is a big event, Gingerbread may be included. That likely would mean the launch of Nexus S from Samsung as well.
And why not throw in GoogleMe, Emerald Sea, and Google+1, or whatever Google is calling its social network, in for Tuesday as well?
I’ll make one connection.
Emerald is the color of the icons in the new Android OS, so perhaps Gingerbread is tied up with Google’s social play somehow. It would make sense to marry one of Google’s most successful products with their all-important social play.