Android To Come To The Netbook?

It is news that must have warmed the cockles of the heart of the anti-Microsoft lobby out there. A spokesperson from Hewlett-Packard Development Company, a leading computer manufacturer, has confirmed that the company is seriously looking into the possibility of porting the Android Operating System onto some of its netbooks.

“Android” is the name given to the open-source operating system first developed by Google and later adopted by the Open Handset Alliance for further development. The operating system was primarily envisioned for the mobile device, and is available for download free of cost. People can go to the website (http://www.android.com/) and download the OS, and add or upgrade it to suit their needs. This also means that anybody can upgrade the OS to meet the needs of a netbook, which is what HP seems to be doing.

The move by HP is similar to the strategy being cautiously adopted by Asustek Computer, which is said to have put a team of engineers on the job of building a netbook around the Android.

When this strategy succeeds, two things will happen. The price of the netbook will come down by another notch, as Android is free of cost in compared to Windows that Microsoft sells at a price. And two, what is happening to netbooks might as well begin to happen with desktops, laptops and wherever Windows has hitherto fore been deployed. This will loosen the stranglehold of Microsoft over its key market.

Read more about the latest buzz in the market about the clash between Android & Windows, here.