ChomeOS may finally be a reality

It can be hard, sometimes, to figure out Google's software strategy. On the one hand, they are running Android, a classic Operating System with Apps. On the other hand, they have been crowing over ChromeOS, a new operating system built to be lean and mean, with no built-in applications but only easy access to Web-based applications like GMail and Picassa. They seem to have hitched their wagon to two teams pulling in opposite directions! But until now, ChromeOS has remained primarily theoretical - there's no shipping hardware for it, and it exists only where people have hacked their own systems to install the Beta.

But now, Download Squad is reporting that a ChromeOS tablet will be on store shelves by Black Friday 2010. And it will be designed specifically to compete with the iPad during the busy Christmas shopping season.

One can only wonder how all of the hopeful Android partners who were planning to release their own Android-based tablets in the fourth quarter are feeling about this news.