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Google, Microsoft stake out territory in brewing battle
Google developing 'larger' netbooks for Chrome; Microsoft touts Windows sales
By John Letzing, MarketWatch
Last Update: 3:53 PM ET Nov 19, 2009
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. kicked their battle for personal computing supremacy into a higher gear Thursday, with Microsoft touting sales of the latest version of its Windows operating system software as its Silicon Valley-based rival promoted a technology that in many ways stands in sharp contrast.
The dueling public displays underlined the stakes at hand as the companies vie for influence over what computer users do, and how they do it -- at a far deeper level than the rival Internet search services that they presently offer.
Microsoft MSFT Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said at the company's annual meeting that after releasing the product last month, "We've already sold twice as many units of Windows 7 than any other operating system we've ever launched in a comparable time."
Windows 7's predecessor, Vista, was widely criticized and failed to sell well to large corporate customers, while also creating higher expectations for any new iteration of the technology.
Microsoft, which has suffered amid the recession and was forced to undertake its first-ever official round of mass layoffs this year as a result, is depending heavily on Windows 7's success to maintain its position at the center of much of the personal computing that goes on worldwide.
However, Mountain View, Calif.-based Google GOOG, which has managed to remain relatively unscathed throughout the economic downturn, is mounting a significant challenge.
The company, which still makes the bulk of its money through Internet search advertising, staged a demonstration of its forthcoming operating system called Chrome OS on Thursday. The demo was meant to highlight its differences from Windows, while taking a series of indirect shots at Microsoft's technology, which has long dominated the market.
While Windows is a tightly-controlled, proprietary software, Google vice president of product management Sundar Pichai said that as of Thursday, outside developers will be able to access Chrome OS's blueprints and code to make alterations.
And while Microsoft has made a significant nod to cheaper, smaller netbook computers by tailoring a version of Windows 7 for them, Google is making a far bigger bet on the increasingly popular machines.
In addition, Google's technology will be overwhelmingly tilted toward Internet use, whereas Windows 7 treats the Web as one of several options.
Google is now working "with our partners very hard to see slightly larger netbooks," Pichai said, which may feature larger displays or keyboards. Pichai declined to say which hardware makers the company is partnering with.
"We actually expect these to be great entertainment devices," Pichai said of netbooks, as he demonstrated the use of Chrome OS on a netbook to access a digitized book and games that are stored online, rather than on the computer.
Pichai said Google hopes to release Chrome OS on a series of netbooks in time for the holidays next year, though he acknowledged that working with manufacturers is an arduous process.
Microsoft has a long history of working together with hardware companies to jointly develop specifications for Windows -- with some computer makers keeping staff based at the software giant's Redmond, Wash. headquarters.
"Windows 7 is the simply best PC operating system we have ever built," Ballmer said at the company's annual meeting. "It enables people to do more of what they want to do more easily and more quickly, and customers are responding."
Meanwhile Google, at its presentation, lamented the relatively long time it takes to boot up machines using "current" technologies -- a dig at Windows. The company also promised that Chrome OS users will not be subjected to "blue screens of doom," a reference to the error screen that has plagued many Windows users in the past.
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