Nov 2, 2010 11:36 GMT  ·  By

There's been quite a lot of talk about Google's incoming Chrome OS for portable computing systems lately, since we're approaching fast the search engine giant's own estimated launch window, and the latest rumors seems to indicate the month of November as the moment when the first devices running a finite version of the operating system will make their way onto the market.

So, as DigiTimes reports, several brand vendors are expected to launch their new generation smartbooks featuring the Google Chrome operating system (OS) later this month, which should some competition for all the iPads and Android tablets out there.

However, the most interesting thing worth mentioning here is that it Google will apparently also launch a self-branded Chrome OS notebook, an ARM-based machine that will be marketed pretty much in the same manner as their Nexus smartphone.

The industry sources quoted within the article claiming that Acer and Hewlett-Packard will soon follow suite and launch some products in December, with Asus still waiting to see what's what before deciding to make a decisive move in this segment.

The November-release time frame seems to fit perfectly with previous reports, which indicated roughly the same interval for the release of Google's first foray into the OS market, as you can read for yourselves in one of our previous articles on the matter.

While we've got plenty of info what the Google Chrome OS will be able to do (if some of you can remember, we've already published a quick guide for you to be able to run it on your own Windows computer, albeit hosted in a virtual machine), the truth of the matter is that the way in which this browser and Internet-based operating system will ultimately work is not yet known. However, it will certainly mark a major shift in the industry, and it remains to be seen just how Microsoft and Apple will react to its appearance.