Google Chrome OS Spreading to Smart TVs, Tablets, Thin Clients

While just about everyone thought it had Google's plans for Chrome OS and Android pretty much figured out, it would seem that the search engine giant's agenda might just be a tad different, the company actually planning for their future operating system to spread way beyond the realm of netbooks and other such systems. In fact, as Electronista reports, it would seem that, during an interview with the New York Times, Google's VP of engineering for Chrome Linus Upson, revealed a bit more than he should have, pretty much confirming the fact that the company has some plans for extending the use of Chrome OS to mobile devices and smart TVs as well, at some point on the future. Another very interesting detailed revealed by Mr. Upson is that Google is also considering the corporate environment as an important target for the OS, since “as much as 60 percent of workplaces could switch away from traditional platforms like Mac OS X or Windows”, according to Mr. Upson. That's probably because thin clients running the Chrome OS, together with cloud-based applications, would bring some significant cost cuts for the companies' IT departments. The slight change in focus (Chrome OS was initially designed to target specifically the netbook market) has been caused, most likely, by the fact that Internet tablets in general and the iPad in particular have become a lot more popular lately, sort of cannibalizing on the netbook segment. Going back to the two categories of products we've mentioned before, we can't help but notice that the only problem, right now, is that smartphones, tablets and Google TV alike are powered by Google's own Android operating system, so coming up with another OS that will target exactly the same segments might not be exactly the best possible idea for Google, since they'll confuse potential customers. Nevertheless, this move might actually be a part of Google's plan to unify the two operating systems in a single, web-centric solution at some point in the future, but for the time being, it's rather difficult to estimate just when that moment will arrive.