Google announced today that they are working on Google Chrome OS. A new operating system for the web. While I'm a bit underwhelmed by the lack of details in their announcement (Linux Kernel + Chrome + new security paradigm), its hard not to be exited by this.
Some people say that Google will now have two competing operating system (Android and Chrome OS) and that this is not a good thing. I tend to disagree with this point of view. I feel that friendly competition within the same company is a good thing. I call that coopetition. This enable the company to evolve an idea through different path instead of relying on some external player to explore an alternate path. While this may divide the resource pool inside company, when you have enough resources (like Google), this is not a problem. In this case, the initial focus is different. Android is for mobile devices and Chrome OS for netbooks, laptops and desktops. While the line between mobile devices and netbooks may blur in the near future, today they are separate little beasts.
If both OSes evolve into the same markets, then at some point, Google may have to chose between the two (or let the user choose). But in the meantime, they'll have two options for two different market and this is a good thing.
