Google and Dell are having pleasant conversation on whether to include the former's Chrome OS in the latter's netbooks.
Amit Midha, Dell's president for Greater China and South Asia, told Reuters that there was nothing specific to announce, but implied that Dell has an opinion on the direction technology is headed, and that Google's going to be an important partner down the road.
"There are going to be unique innovations coming up in the marketplace in two, three years, with a new form of computing, we want to be on that forefront ... So with Chrome or Android or anything like that we want to be one of the leaders," Midha said.
Google first demonstrated Chrome OS in November. The operating system is basically a souped-up version of the Chrome Web browser, with icons that link to popular Web sites instead of desktop applications. The idea is to have the computer function almost entirely in the cloud, though Google will allow for local storage on removable media. To deal with printing without installing drivers, Google's working on a solution called Cloud Print.
Dell won't be alone in adopting Chrome OS, if it decides to do so. Acer has claimed that it will be the first company to release a Chrome OS netbook, and Download Squad recently found evidence that HP and Dell are early partners as well. Google has only said that Chrome OS devices will arrive this fall from select partners.
Meanwhile, the rising popularity of Android and their potential for tablet PCs had led some to believe Google should kill Chrome OS. But that's a shortsighted view that doesn't consider one possibility: Just as the Web has overshadowed desktop applications, the same could happen to mobile, and Android will begin to look dated. I think Dell is on the right track in guessing that a cloud-based operating system could become important two or three years from now. And I'd definitely rather see Dell experiment with new platforms than stick with the status quo.