Will Chrome OS Wipe Out Splashtop and HyperSpace?

When Google announced their Chrome OS just last week, speculation begin almost instantaneously with regards to what exactly it would become. Google isn’t too clear on the subject, which doesn’t help things too much, but as it appears now, the OS is not designed to be a full-fledged offering, and it’s very unlikely to ever escape the grasp of netbooks, nettops and other similar devices.

So instead of competing with the likes of Windows, it looks like Chrome OS is to take such solutions as DeviceVM’s Splashtop and Phoenix’s HyperSpace head-on. The products from those companies offer similar goals, to give the consumer a computer that boots up and literally allows the user to be online within seconds. Both of these solutions, however, deliver an OS that’s installed to a flash chip on the motherboard. Whether or not Google will take the same route, is unknown.

I think what it will all come down to is whether or not there are people who actually want this product to begin with. Splashtop has been around for a little while now, and we’ve taken a look at it more than once, but I still don’t see such an overwhelming response to it, and the only time I ever hear about it is when I receive a press release from them. Of course, such a new technology may just need time to catch on, so we’ll see where things stand once Google unveils the final version of Chrome OS.

Google says that Chrome OS will be distributed under an open source license and will be available to use at no cost. This could seriously undermine the relevance of HyperSpace, which Phoenix commercially licenses to OEMs. Phoenix is banking on the technical advantages and greater maturity of its platform, characteristics that the company believes will make its offering a better value for hardware manufacturers.