Search engine technology giant Google is all set to unleash a price war of

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sorts in the computing hardware market with its much-hyped Chrome Operating System set for global launch in May.

Chrome OS, based on the cloud computing model, would be bundled with personal computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones, for which Google has already tied up with brands like Acer and Samsung. Saying that Google would increasingly work towards a cloud-based environment, Vinay Goel, Google India’s head of products, said, “The hardware configuration is changing. There is no need for expensive storage devices to be in a PC or a laptop. The storage will happen on the cloud.”

He said one can access several other applications from the cloud instead of installing them on their systems. The added advantage is that there is no additional licensing fee since the Chrome OS would be part of the system. “You don’t need a 20-gig hard drive anymore. You don’t need to buy OS or Office Suite. You don’t need to buy anti-virus since everything is in the cloud and nothing is on the hard drive,” said Goel.

Google has already put in place tens of thousands of custom-made notebooks with Google Chrome OS worldwide as part of a pilot project and the response has been highly encouraging, he said. Saying that Google Chrome OS would be launched worldwide in May, Goel, however, said the launch plan for India is not yet known. It could happen simultaneously with the global launch or with a lag of a couple of months.

Goel said that since several hardware and software components are taken out of the system in the Chrome OS-bundled gadgets, they were expected to cost much less than the existing hardware. “We can’t talk about prices since we are not involved in any of those activities. But there should be some effect since there is a reduction in the consumption of hardware components,” he said. Since the entire system runs on cloud, the user has to remain connected to the internet for using the system. Goel said connectivity in India is not an issue and tariffs for accessing the internet were quite affordable. “The connectivity price advantage would drive the usage of the new OS,” he said.

Elaborating on R&D initiatives, Goel said Google is currently focusing on making search more relevant, intelligent, interactive and personal, while ensuring that the search experience remained uncomplicated.

Keeping in view the mobile revolution in the subcontinent, Google plans to aggressively introduce both voice-based and image-based search against the existing key-in search mode.

“Market data show that there are over 700 million mobile phones in the country and there are huge numbers of internet connections on mobile phones,” he said.

Saying that search engine technologies would remain the core business of Google, Goel said other businesses were also growing fast and contributing significantly to the overall business. These included YouTube, Enterprise Cloud and Chrome OS.