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ChromeOS and Tiered Data

December 11, 2010 10:46:49.297

While I have a fair amount of sympathy for the "don't trust the users or the apps" approach to computing that Google is taking with ChromeOS, there's one rather huge flaw in the approach - tiered data plans:

The matte black Cr-48 won't be sold to the public, but thousands are being sent to consumers and businesses who have volunteered to test it. It introduces a new kind of operating system, called Chrome OS, that turns to the Web for almost everything.

Once you leave the comfort of your own WiFi zone, you're confronted with two things:

  • Generally slow public WiFi options - some free, some not
  • 3G, which is not only not free, but tends to get really expensive if you blow the cap on your data plan

Take the plan that's available for my iPad, for instance - for $30/month (if I turn it on), I get 3G, but only 2 GB. That's not a lot of data, especially if you try to stream a couple of movies or tv shows in your hotel room.

IMHO, Google's ChromeOS isn't a bad idea, but it's going to run smack into the carrier data models, which are not at all in line with the way people want to use such devices....

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posted by James Robertson

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