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Navigating the bamboo scaffolding of China's rapid-rising tower of technology

by Steven Millward, China

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Google Chrome OS on Chinese Netbook next month?

Oct 3, 2009 11:57

Google announced their plans to make an operating system for computers earlier this summer, and its eagerly awaited release date is 'sometime in 2010'.

But a Chinese manufacturer might be about to get a head-start next month by releasing a locally-manufactered netbook that comes with a pre-release version of Google Chrome OS installed, according to reports on a Chinese website that closely monitors the production lines of China's hundreds of tiny electrical firms.

That site, shanzhai.com, claims to have manufacturing sources that say Lemote will use its existing 'Yeelong 8089' netbook, which comes with its own company's Loongson CPU, as its Chrome OS trailblazer. It seems Lemote will forego their usual Linux distributions to slap an unready version of Chrome (photo, below, shows the Yeelong netbook running pre-release Chrome OS) into the machine.

Chrome OS running the Yeelong netbook

As I explored in my last post, a number of mainland China's mobile phone makers are rushing to put Android - Google's mobile OS - on their phones in order to boost sales, so it should come as no real surprise that Chrome OS would be similarly appealing to China's laptop and netbook makers, hoping to emulate the success of Taiwan's HTC with its early adoption of Android.

Using the free Chrome OS would save manufacturers an estimated US$40 - which is the going-rate for OEMs to install Windows XP SP3 - which is a big chunk of money at the low-end of the portable computing market which remains somewhat dominated by two Taiwanese firms, Asus and Acer - with mainland China firms clearly having missed the netbook bandwagon when it first rolled by. But since Lemote's Yeelong currently uses a version of the free and open-souce Linux OS, there'll be no saving for Lemote themselves.

So, if Lemote's Chrome OS netbook appears next month, or sometime before Chrome's official release, it'll be interesting to see if Google will object, and if consumers will be willing to put up cash for what is - through no fault of Google - a totally unfinished product.

(Note: the current Yeelong 8089 with Linux retails at 2899 RMB (that's US$425 or €290) in China, but sells in Europe for €335 at the moment. Not sure if any Chrome version would have the same price).

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About Steven Millward

Six years after arriving in China to 'check it out', Steven Millward has decided to stay put, and is hooked on the fast-changing dynamic of mainland China. He's not too intimidated that his current city of residence has a greater population than his entire homeland of Wales. A freelance editor, lifestyle magazine writer, English teacher, and rather enthusiastic blogger, he can also be found on twitter (as @SirSteven) discussing media, tech and music. You can email him with any tips, queries or feedback.