Google Chrome OS Netbooks to be $300 to $400

Makers of Chrome OS netbooks won't have to pay for the OS, but the hardware still costs money.

Google, with Chrome OS, plans to move into the operating system in a bigger way that its Android software is taking over smartphones not called the iPhone. Speaking at the Atmosphere Cloud Computing forum, company CEO Eric Schmidt admitted that Google is rewriting some of its software so that it'll work with Chrome OS – so that Google can sooner start using its own software and not rely on tools from Microsoft or Apple.

Google figures that any challenges the company must go through to switch software will be experienced by other businesses planning on doing the same. In short, Google is using itself as a test case.

"At Google we're getting ready to deploy these essentially Android and Chrome-based devices that are in development, so we want, of course, to eat our own dogfood which is how we sit here and build things. … We found applications that were part of our business; operations, sales, accounting so forth… even at Google we have this problem. I expect everyone faces this problem."

Schmidt also answered questions relating to how much a Chrome OS-packing netbook will cost.

"It will be up to the manufacturers who do it, but the price points you should think about are the current netbook pricings which are 300 dollar, 400 dollar price points. … Those prices are completely determined, by the way, by the costs of the glass, the costs of the processor and things like that, but in our case Chrome OS and Android are free so there is no software tax associated with all of this."

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