Chrome OS has become a big hitter in the cheap netbook arena, offering a lighter operating system for using the web. Samsung’s Chromebook spent 90 days at the top of Amazon sales chart, showing how widespread the engagement is on Chromebooks.
LG wants to change the platform a little, by adding Chromebase, an all-in-one desktop running Chrome OS. This goes against the idea right now, building a low-end netbook and then slapping in Chrome OS to make it run fast.
The Chromebase would act quite like an iMac, with all the parts inside and hopefully a keyboard and mouse. Obviously it would run Chrome OS instead of traditional Windows or another Linux ROM, making it rather redundant unless all your work is on the web.
Most desktop users are one of two people: a professional who needs to use a desktop PC because of the power or a gamer. The market doesn’t really want a web based operating system because it doesn’t run complex apps or games outside a browser.
Google is banking on the Chromebase getting into the hands of professionals who use Google Drive and do not need offline applications, but this market is pretty small compared to the amount of people that just want to go on the web with a cheap portable laptop.
Still, LG is ready to make the first Chromebase, one of the many trademarked Chrome names we have seen crop up in the last few months. We will see an official unveiling at CES in January.