Google unwraps Chrome laptops

The web-centric computers, intended as an incursion into territory dominated for years by Microsoft Corp and Apple Inc, will ship around the middle of 2011.

Google is holding off launching the Chrome-based PCs until it can fix some software bugs and make sure that the computers are compatible with other devices such as digital cameras, Google product manager Sundar Pichai said on Tuesday.

“Amazing progress, but we are not fully done yet,” Pichai told reporters at a press briefing in San Francisco.

“If I am shooting for one holiday season, I would not be working on it. This is a journey,” Pichai told Reuters.

Once they arrive, the computers will embody Google’s strongest foray into consumer and business computing.

“You will see a variety of notebook price units,” Pichai said. Samsung Electronics and Acer Inc will make the first laptops. Intel Corp will make the processors in the first batch.

The first laptops will come with 100 megabytes of free wireless data transfers per month for two years, courtesy of Verizon Wireless. According to Verizon, streaming video for just two minutes every day amounts to 260 megabytes of data downloads in a month.

The laptops promote web-centric computing, in which people use online applications instead of software loaded onto PCs. As with Android mobile phones, the Chrome software is expected to spur people to use the Internet more often and search for more things.

While Chrome-based PCs won’t be available in retail stores until next year, Google has begun a pilot programme distributing prototypes to schools, businesses, developers and other users with the intent of collecting feedback.

The all-black “CR 48” prototypes come with 12.1-inch screens, 3G connectivity and webcams, but do not have any logos or branding.

Google demonstrated how the notebooks can be turned back on from standby mode almost instantaneously. Pichai also said notebooks which are turned off completely can be powered back up in 10 seconds.