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Chrome OS tablet rumored to go on sale with Verizon in November

By | August 18, 2010, 10:17am PDT

Summary: It looks like Google might be pulling an old switcheroo. Rumor has it that the Mountain View-based company is planning to release a Chrome OS-based tablet (not an Android one just yet) this November.

It looks like Google might be pulling an old switcheroo. Rumor has it that the Mountain View-based company is planning to release a Chrome OS-based tablet (not an Android one just yet) this November.

It gets better. According to a source over at Download Squad, the HTC-made tablet will launch with Verizon Wireless on November 26. Before you even look at your calendars, just know that this is Black Friday. Talk about making a statement on the biggest shopping day of the year.

The blog is predicted a lower price tag seen on any of the iPad variants (at least with the signing of a likely two-year contract), with specs including:

  • Multi-touch display (1,280 x 720 resolution)
  • Nvidia Tegra 2 platform
  • 2GB of RAM
  • 32GB SSD
  • 3G
  • Wi-Fi
  • Bluetooth
  • GPS
  • Webcam
  • Memory card reader

There’s no reason that Google can’t release tablets on both Chrome OS and Android, so this could very well pan out to be true.

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Sale, Verizon Communications Inc., Tablets, Notebooks, Hardware, Notebooks & Tablets, Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for ZDNet based in San Francisco.

Disclosure

Rachel King

Rachel King has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted in this blog.

Biography

Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for CBS Interactive in San Francisco. Before serving as a contributing editor at ZDNet in New York City for two years, she previously worked for The Business Insider, FastCompany.com, CNN's San Francisco bureau and the U.S. Department of State. Rachel has also written for MainStreet.com, Irish America Magazine and the New York Daily News, among others. Rachel has a B.A. in Mass Communications and History from the University of California, Berkeley and a M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University, where she served as art director for the student magazine, Plated.

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good idea about android
gavin.chan 1st Oct
A good post. Thanks for sharing.Hi, do you own a tablet pc? We supply kinds of tablet computers, including 7 inch touch screen tablet . Buy a android tablet 10.2 inch from China at wholesale price.strYP
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Google copying Apple
iPad-awan 18th Aug 2010
Again
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Or is it "besting" Apple?
andy.hefty@... 18th Aug 2010
Not sure this will be a copy. Could be an improvement. Wait and see.
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It is, at best, a subset
Bruizer 18th Aug 2010
@andy.hefty@...

No apps, just a browser? Web apps, such as Google Docs, are still pretty sad.
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Personally, I'll wait and see
vulpine@... 18th Aug 2010
Maybe it'll be worth something -- maybe not. If nothing else, Apple has made a statement and the others need to respond or become irrelevant. For all of you who said the iPad was nothing but a bit iPod, maybe now you'll find a reason to buy an iPad copy, if only to keep Apple from having a monopoly in this market. It can only help everyone.
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RE: Chrome OS tablet rumored to go on sale with Verizon in November
wineaux 18th Aug 2010
Android is a phone OS, and it sees Android tablets as nothing more than large form factor phones. Android doesn't handle a lot of things that we expect an OS on a computer to do well. Mostly on the setup and customization side of things, but also when it comes to peripherals and especially wireless. Chrome on the other hand looks to be a true desktop/laptop/tablet OS, and for a non-phone would seem to be the better choice. Seriously, Android is a PITA on a tablet, and Google may finally be wising up to it.

The real issue with Chrome is that it is mostly cloud based, and unless the tablet ships with a cellular radio, things start getting mighty useless when you aren't connected. Hence the initial product being sold by Verizon.

In any event, it's certainly fun to see all the new toys come out. Let's see how the OS shakeout pans out. It certainly should keep us all entertained for at least another year or two.
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RE: Chrome OS tablet rumored to go on sale with Verizon in November
jeff.fostermedia@... 19th Aug 2010
This makes a lot of sense considering most people who like Android tend to like keyboards. HTC makes the best slide touch screen devices and so a Chrome system could be more like a netbook than and iPad. In that equation iPad won't lose much ground, because Chrome can't do the scale of iOS hardware. Apple will at some point create a multitouch Mac that won't even be in the same category as iPad or anything like it. So ultimately, I think Google is going to takeover the Windows netbook market and not really impact iPad. Personally Chrome won't have the amount market history as iPad/iOS and would be more of a complement to the Android user. Even if it runs Android apps it's not like they attract attention on their own. Apple can keep it's lead as long as it blesses iOS developers.
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RE: Chrome OS tablet rumored to go on sale with Verizon in November
SpectreWriter 18th Aug 2010
When they put out the Nexus, the only way to buy it was through their website, which did not deal with businesses and EINs. T-Mobile was not allowed to be involved, so the choice was to pay full price or not get it, and there was no phone number to call. Unwilling to hand them $600 for a device I wasn't even able to see anywhere, I passed. We checked out the Incredible, the EVO and the Droid and now have Droid-X. When the iPad screw job came out from AT&T (eliminated the Unlimited data plan just 6 weeks after it came out,) I felt vindicated in not trusting AT&T, and glad I hadn't bought the thing. Now comes another Google product, this time distributed through Verizon. Will we be able to see it, touch it, play with it? Maybe, then... but at what price per month? I pay $30 a month for the data package on my DroidX phone now. It's likely they'll want another $60 a month (plus the initial purchase price) for this pad (when I don't really need their data services yet another time.)

Get smart about marketing these things. Step away from the big money giants, and just put the pad out at an affordable price, put it in stores, and SELL the thing. Make the 3G module interchangeable so that we can choose and change carriers or upgrade to 4G at a reasonable cost. Then maybe you'll have something that people are willing to exchange for hard-earned cash.
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RE: Chrome OS tablet rumored to go on sale with Verizon in November
mca123 18th Aug 2010
@SpectreWriter
Yeah, that $30 a month data package should be able to be used on more than one device, but that will never happen. Forget about Verizon letting you use a device that you didn't buy from them on their network. I have a netbook with a 3g card that works with any carrier and Verizon says no when it comes to activating a data plan with them with my netbook. It's not in their database so forget it. Nice way to do business huh? Someday people will just go to a store and buy a cell phone with no ties to anyone, then maybe the cell companies will sell what they are supposed to sell....cell phone service/data service. I find it pretty outrageous that I can not buy data service from a data service provider. They make up all kinds of stuff why it's like that, but a netbook is a netbook, just like a phone is a phone who cares where I bought it from. You are a cell service provider, that's what you sell, a tiny piece of wireless bandwidth that I should be able to use with any piece of equipment that is compatible.
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RE: Chrome OS tablet rumored to go on sale with Verizon in November
levinson 18th Aug 2010
And the price?
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RE: Chrome OS tablet rumored to go on sale with Verizon in November
wineaux 18th Aug 2010
@levinson I'll guess $499 without a contract, and $299 with a 2-year contract. The capacitive resistance screen and the GPS are easily adding $200-250 to the MSRP.
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RE: Chrome OS tablet rumored to go on sale with Verizon in November
Bruizer 18th Aug 2010
@levinson

I will go 599 (with 20-35% GM) with no contract. 299 with a 2 year contract. 35/month data plan for two year cost of 1160.
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RE: Chrome OS tablet rumored to go on sale with Verizon in November
camcost@... 18th Aug 2010
I could be interested in Chrome.
I own a 7" Android tablet and it's basically a bad joke.
Why?
Because the OS was developed for phones and my device is basically a tablet c-o-m-p-u-t-e-r. There's no phone connection which makes about 80% of the Android apps (I've tried to load to it) practically worthless. They're a lot like ET... they want to 'phone home' but have nowhere to go.

Having owned an Android tablet for several months doesn't make me a fan.
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I need hands-on too
common sense 18th Aug 2010
@SpectreWriter is on the right path: if I don't have a chance to touch it, see & feel, then the cash isn't coming out of my pocket. Previous phone was an AT&T from Amazon but I could try it out first in several stores. Last week I was pretty convinced to bite on the Streak, even with the 1.6 OS, but it was offered only from Dell with a, get this, 15% restocking fee so I would have to pay $30 just to see it! The Samsung Galaxy/Captivate I got instead is pretty nice, still subject to the AT&T "let's see how we can screw with our customers" attitude (FM radio yanked, no sideloading, etc); maybe that's why they are such good bedfellows with Apple. (Let's not put in a camera so next year all the iPad users will HAVE to upgrade.) We have a Droid X on order for my wife (West Coast is sold out) because we could try it out in the store. The sellers need to step around the counter and act like buyers and see what their customers truly want to make us happy. (BTW, one of my f-t-f focus groups years ago was for an Internet service that would offer information, home page, etc and we gave it a lot of (mostly positive) feedback. At the end of the group they said the service would probably be called Yahoo, and they started out pretty strong. I'm convinced the focus groups helped them understand our wants and expectations.)
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RE: Chrome OS tablet rumored to go on sale with Verizon in November
gene@... 18th Aug 2010
waiting for Notion Ink. Don't need OTA and would rather not have to deal with AT&T, Verizon, etc. WiFi is available everywhere I go, so why be bothered or tempted to throw money down the drain for $$$/Kb fees. Tablet is nice for watching movies, but to be useful there needs to be a keyboard.
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RE: Chrome OS tablet rumored to go on sale with Verizon in November
INGOTIAN 18th Aug 2010
This is just another step in the replacement of Windows/i86 as the dominant user computing technology with mobile phone technology. The biggest volume wins just as PCs won against minicomputers and Workstations. Its amusing how Google and Apple are desperately delaying any association with desktop computers. They don't want consumers to say "Duh this is a computer it should be running Windows". There will come a point where these new mobile technologies eclipse current desktops and they all want to be the dominant player. Apple might have been in early but then they were with PCs and look what happened. Their closed systems show thy haven't learnt - or maybe they will be happy to be seen as a minority high value vendor. Google and Nokia on the other hand want the volume. At present Google seems to have the best disruptive business model.
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Too soon for Chrome.
dave95. Updated - 18th Aug 2010
If it's anything like what I've seen so far from Chrome, then they will have a hard time convincing consumers to bite on this cloud thing for everything imo. And with everything in GoogleCloud, I would be surprise if they release a wifi only version. It would be crippled with everything being accessed through the Cloud (i guess this was the reason for the close relationship with Verizon recently). We will see how they pull this off but I have a hunch it is too soon to be widely embraced.

Have you noticed how fast Google is moving? Launching, killing, launching, killing, fragmentation....
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good idea about android
gavin.chan 1st Oct
A good post. Thanks for sharing.Hi, do you own a tablet pc? We supply kinds of tablet computers, including 7 inch touch screen tablet . Buy a android tablet 10.2 inch from China at wholesale price.strYP

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