There was a lot of interest in IT circles and elsewhere in netbooks when they came on the scene a few years ago as a more portable, less expensive alternative to full-fledged notebooks. But netbook sales and innovation leveled out in the past year, while Apple’s iPad became the new gotta have portable alternative.
But Google thinks there’s plenty that can be done to improve the range of netbook offerings. A year ago, the search giant said it planned to work with leading hardware vendors on a new class of so-called Pro Netbooks that will rely on broadband connectivity to run Web services and Googles’ own Chrome OS software. Google reportedly plans to unveil the first of those devices on Tuesday of this week.
Meanwhile, look for Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff to make some news of his own Tuesday at his company’s Dreamforce conference. CIO Update has the story.
Tuesday is shaping up to be a day of major tech news coming from San Francisco. Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) for one, isn’t saying much about what it plans to announced at a special press event, beyond a line in the invitation that it will be “some exciting news about Chrome.”
But a number of reports speculate the event will center on the unveiling of the first Chrome OS netbook which, from a timing perspective, makes sense.