There’s a rumor that Samsung might put Chrome OS on their Galaxy Tab or perhaps on a next gen version of the Galaxy Tab. Google, in fact, may even recommend manufacturers to start using Chrome OS for tablets.
I think Chrome OS will work much better on a tablet than on a netbook, especially since most people would rather buy a tablet now than a netbook. If Google launches Chrome OS only on a netbook, it will seem not even half as exciting as it would be if it were on a tablet. The tablet with multitouch interaction can provide a better web experience than a netbook, but a tablet with Chrome OS should provide the best web experience from any device out there, whether it’s an Android tablet or an iPad.
First of all, it gets full Chrome browser, which will also have hardware acceleration and will benefit from the powerful GPU’s that will come with these tablets, especially when compared to the graphics power of a netbook, which is basically non-existent.
Now, why would Samsung consider Chrome OS over Android. Why would anyone consider Chrome OS over Android at this point?
Google themselves said that Froyo is not suited for tablets. They’ve also said that they are going to overhaul the UI and design of Android 3.0 Gingerbread, but does that also imply that it will work on tablets? That’s not something we can be sure about, yet. Either they want to keep it a secret or not even Gingerbread is suited for tablets, which would be a shame, because Android fans have already waited too much for Android to get ready for tablets. It would be terrible news if now they have to wait for Honeycomb to be tablet-ready – if ever.
If Google wants to make people forget about native apps, they could potentially leave Android just for smartphones, and never make it suited for tablets, and just force manufacturers to use Chrome OS for tablets. Then, through their Chrome Webstore, they’d heavily promote webapps.
However, I think that would be a big mistake. Most manufacturers have already adopted Android for their tablets, and it’s a little late to keep Android just for smartphones, they themselves are promoting it to other types of devices like TV’s and even cars. It would’ve been ideal if they had some kind of Chrome OS/WebOS type of OS from the beginning, but now it’s too late for that and it’s best to just make both OS’s available for tablets and whatnot, and let the consumers choose which one they prefer.