Don’t Expect Google Chrome OS on Tablets Anytime Soon

Despite recent indications that Google is preparing Chrome OS for tablets, Google says that it is “fully focused on notebooks” for the foreseeable future.

When Google announced the OS, all they had to demonstrate the truest form of Chrome OS on was their CR-48 reference prototype, which was never intended for sale. It was attractively minimal, but didn’t pack much of a punch when it came to its guts. Acer and Samsung have stepped in to solve this problem.

When asked about Google’s future plans for Chrome OS beyond the notebook, Google SVP of Chrome Sundar Pichai said that Chrome OS is “agnostic” to the hardware it runs on. In other words, Chrome OS can easily be ported to tablets, desktops and other Internet-connected devices.

 When asked about Google’s future plans for Chrome OS beyond the notebook, Google SVP of Chrome Sundar Pichai said that Chrome OS is “agnostic” to the hardware it runs on. In other words, Chrome OS can easily be ported to tablets, desktops and other Internet-connected devices.

With that said, Pichai made it clear that Google is laser focused on Chrome OS for the notebook. He noted that Google wants to reach the greatest amount of people possible, and most people use notebooks rather than tablets or desktops. “We are fully focused on notebooks,” Pichai said.

That doesn’t mean that Google is ignoring tablets, though. On Tuesday, Google released Android Honeycomb 3.1, the newest version of its tablet-optimized OS. With an operating system already optimized for phones and tablets, Google doesn’t have any incentive to bring Chrome OS to tablets anytime soon.