The last thing the tablet world needs right now is yet another platform, but that appears to be where Google is heading — or at the very least, they’re bracing for the inevitable by making Chrome OS a bit more touch-friendly.
Some hints, in the form of layout adjustments, virtual keyboard graphics, and so on, have been uncovered by Stephen Shankland over at CNET, but the import of these items isn’t really clear just yet. After all, Honeycomb is just at the very beginning of its life — but that doesn’t mean it’s Google’s only answer to the tablet question.
For one thing, Chrome OS is potentially much more lightweight than Android, especially Honeycomb, which has strict hardware requirements. On the other hand, Chrome OS is designed to boot in seconds and run on anything that can handle a browser. What web apps and video decoding might require in a year or two is another question entirely.
For now it’s just vague inklings of a future product. I’ll keep an eye out for more news like this; I like the idea of Chrome OS on tablets, though it doesn’t make a lot of sense commercially right now.