Google made this announcement today:
As I type this on my CR-48, I realize that this has the potential to kick some serious enterprise tail. The main reason I think this will fly is because of the close tying to Google Apps (for Business and Education).
If your business is already paying $50 per user per year, you can add $336 per user per year to that total bill and forget about hardware requirements for your users. Chromebooks for $28 per user per month and now you have both a hardware and software solution and your in-house IT can go on vacation (well, maybe not everyone, Chromebooks will always require a well oiled network).
The system is pretty solid and as long as any in-house applications work on the web/Chrome platform (I have ran into some web-based applications that don't work on Chrome OS, but it usually doesn't have to be that way).
As far as consumers go we'll have to wait and see what the pricing turns out to be (Best Buy and Amazon.com will be selling them but still no prices). If a consumer can buy a $99 device that gets them on the web I think it may be a winner. Likewise if wireless carriers can offer a free device with a monthly fee of $20 to $30 we may have a winner.
Overall I think the strategy is totally different than what Google is trying to do with Android. Down the road I could see Chrome OS being absorbed into Android but for now they serve two different purposes. Could you have a netbook running Android, sure, would it be as slick, simple and easy to use as Chrome OS out of the gate? No.
Source: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/new-kind-of-computer-chromebook.html
