[jkahlon]

Privacy is an illusion with all due respect. We e-file and a lot of folks use the hosting solution by third parties like Fidelity, turbo tax, and you name it.
Online access is provided today to banks and other financial institutions. Personal pictures are stored on public sites. We give our credit cards for online transactions on a daily basis.
What personal data do we keep on the laptop ? Now for a business I agree and it will take time to change that.
Reality is most of our personal critical data lives online today and I see this growing with technology.
So cloud computing 's time is coming.

[youclay]

When I think about Chrome OS, I think it might be comparable to the Hulu Desktop App. You can improve the quality of the video/product by streamlining your performance for a specific purpose. You also add control over how your Ads or other things can perform. On a third-party browser, you can bypass these. By choosing a platform like Hulu or Chrome, you will get a better experience (maybe) but the tradeoff might be less individual control.

[ocampo]

It's important to note that the telcos and major broadband providers want caps and or metered Internet service contracts. It seem to me, if they get their way, Google's cloud future will have serious economic problems. The majority of computer users are not going to pay through the nose to accept Google's idea of computing. Add browser advertising to that vision, and you have a non starter for a business model.

[dadawnabbott6]

That's the great news that Google is launching its own operating system. I think Google have to face big competition against microsoft product. Basically the cost and functionality will decide the popularity of chrome OS.

[bastion]

kriri said:

I'm always wondering - hasn't Apple proven cloud computing a failure due to customer/developer rejection with the 1G iPhone? And not to forget that MacOS8 allowed for application sharing, kind of a mini cloud? Also gone. Maybe I'm just too old, still downloading my emails to my laptop, maybe it's a question of building a powerful enough infrastructure to provide a satisfying consumer experience?

You can't really prove that a concept is flawed and will never be accepted because a specific implementation didn't succeed and was not widely successful. Imagine the suggestion that Apple proved the PDA was a failure because the MessagePad and eMate didn't take off.

[gregcarp]

"Free" is a powerful psychological force. I read about a recent study
in which participants were offered a choice between a Hershey's Kiss
for 1 cent (USD) and a Lindt Chocolate Truffle for 15 cents. 75%
choose the truffle. When the price of each was reduced by 1 cent, 75%
chose the kiss. The "objective" economic impact was identical in
either case--save 14 cents by choosing the kiss.

It will be interesting to see what the connectivity story is in 2010 and what sort of deal Google may work out with wireless providers. I believe Sprint is already fully subsidizing a netbook if you buy into a 2yr wireless data contract. Others are partially subsidizing the cost, but the writing in on the wall, I think. If wireless providers are already willing to give netbooks away,
Google won't have to subsidize them to break into the wireless market.

Might Google be willing to consider an ad-based revenue sharing deal with a major wireless provider? If so, that would be a substantial new revenue stream for the wireless provider. If they pass some of the revenue on as savings to customers, e.g. live with the ads for a reduced monthly fee, that could generate some demand pull for Chrome OS.

[jkahlon]

Here we go Microsoft has responded:-



http://bigtech.blogs...nline-for-free/



The online version will be free. Did not ready the full article but Google is stirring the pot.

[trip1ex]

Programs strictly on the cloud have that delay or lack of responsiveness that I find irritating.

[flowney]

Google was late on phones and will be late on netbooks in relation to Apple. Neither Google nor Apple are interested in the PC writ small notion of netbooks.

The iTablet rumors are incessant and insistant. There will be an iTablet in October 2009 or sometime soon in 2010 at the very latest. Then, just as with smart phones, Apple will come out first followed by Google. The Apple product will be polished and the Google product will be a bit raggedy around the edges but still far better than the el cheapo netbooks we see proliferating today. Together, they will rewrite the concept of netbook.

[Hamranhansenhansen]

It's been an exciting 10 years since we launched the Apple iTunes media player. Over 500 million people use it regularly. We designed Apple iTunes for people who love digital media.
So today, we're announcing a new project that's a natural extension of Apple iTunes — the Apple iTunes Operating System. It's our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be.
Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Apple iTunes OS. We're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you into your digital media and onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way. And as with the Mac and iPhone, users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It just works.
Apple iTunes OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. The software architecture is simple — Apple iTunes and Safari running within a new windowing system on top of an OS X kernel.
For movie and music producers, iTunes is the platform. For application developers, the web is the platform. All existing digital media will automatically work. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, media and apps will run not only on Apple iTunes OS, but on any system such as Windows, Mac, Chrome, or Linux, thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform.

[gtrichey]

two words for those that think we can just use cloud computing...
Data.
Limits.
many countries still have them in place and cripple your connection once you hit this limit (and many specify peak and off peak usage). those that don't cripple your connection charge high prices for each MB over... so for a family of 4 that can afford say a 25 GB ADSL connection... with cloud only computing their computers would be useless frequently because of the data limit.