Cullmann Design Blog

Having recently spend some time hands-on with the Google Chrome OS using the CR-48, I began to think about how this platform can be used in real-world application. As a someone who spends all day working on a workstation, the Chrome OS is not an ideal solution, but I began to see that for a lot of people Google’s offering could meet a majority of their needs.

Here are 5 instances that Google Chrome OS can be deployed right now with a certainty of success:

Libraries

School and public libraries are at an interesting cross-roads. Information is managed digitally and an increasing focus of libraries is providing access to web-born data and content. Managing the hardware for these institutions is expensive and plagued with management issues. Cloud based applications, enhanced user management and an operating system that can “clean-start” for every user will make web access cheaper and more sustainable for libraries and community learning centers.

Schools

Facing the same problem as libraries, schools can deploy thin-client solutions that allow administrators and parents access to what applications students are using and revoke access during certain periods of time (think no chatting during school hours). Content management can also be enhanced with workgroup solutions that can provide group access to papers and assignments via shared mailboxes and segmented access. Information about usage can also be measures in aggregate to define success scenarios so findings can be quantified and shared.

Sales Teams

For field forces and sales teams, an always up-to-date platform is ideal. The nature of Google’s web-based application system means that everything from customer data to sales figures will be real-time. Internet connectivity can come by way of wireless cellular access (built into many of the new thin-client hardware). Log-in requirements will also help corporations manage access to confidential data on a case-by-case basis. For regulated industries, not having local application to update means that compliance to change is certain.

Hospital Settings

As medical records and patient management change to meet new EMR (Electronic Medical Record) standards, having integrated solutions will be critical. Although traditionally client-based, properly secured network solutions like those at the core of Google’s Chrome OS can help patient care specialist in and out of a hospital setting capture and record patient data at every touch-point in there care experience. By having very little data on end user devices means that there is little patient data on the device to lose in the event of a crash or theft of a device.

Airports and Airplanes

Access to a captive audience for prolonged periods is an advertiser’s dream. A traveler presented with use of a device for the duration of their journey can present a massive opportunity to an ad-based income model like Google’s. Having a controlled platform like the Chrome OS will provide airlines and security officials a level of control not present with the current use of WiFi and cellular connectivity. Chrome is the new first-class premium that replaces your blanket and complimentary headphones.

Chrome is competing with the tablets for a share of market. Apple’s iPad in particular has a strong foothold for the secondary device and thin-client marketing. The biggest advantage to Google’s offering is a near maintenance-free solution for administrators. For anyone in IT support, the idea of managing even the thinnest Windows installation is a bit of a nightmare. The constant updates, determining conflicts, anti-virus solutions, crashes, etc, etc. I don’t see a computing utopia through Google’s thin client solution, but it does offer a certain amount of freedom in it’s simplicity.

The second advantage is a user-profile solution that allows all of the user’s preference and application needs to be synchronized via web account. This allows users to use any machine and get an identical user experience. Even in the event of a compete hardware failure, all that will be required is access to another Google Chrome OS device and the user is back in action.

There are other points that make the Chrome OS practical (and also a hindrance), but in general, many of the issues surrounding computing for public and private sector business are based in system and user management-both are modernized in the Google Chrome ecosystem. I mentioned a few use cases, but the possibilities are vast. The form-factor of current iterations of the Chrome OS hardware presents no learning curve and familiarity that puts people at ease for quick adoption.

Read more about Chrome OS and what role it plays in the evolving computing space by reading my previous entries:
A View of the Google Chrome Store, Dec-2010
Impressions of the Google Chrome Operating System, Nov-2009

Apple’s iPad has been out for a few months and there is still quite a bit of excitement as publications begin to experiment with this new platform. Both Popular Mechanics and WIRED had been quick to release 2 very impressive “App” versions of their publication. Both of these pieces are very engaging and mirror content found in their print publication. The interactive versions include some dynamic enhancements including video content, interactive 3D models and social media integration. Of course, there are also video-based ads and dramatically animated advertisements. These pieces, and a number of other publications that have been released in the AppStore, are showcases for what can be implemented on these platforms.

Despite how impressive these applications are, they are not the future of publishing. In fact, these publications offer none of the benefits of what an “App” can offer at all. The WIRED application as well as PM and many other newly launched periodicals available in the AppStore are merely screenshots of the print publications they are replacing. There is interactivity and user engagement not found in the pulp-versions, but there is no evidence of what is really driving people to online media: Real-time, always on information. One of the most attractive qualities of the web is the ability to retrieve information as it becomes available: RSS, cross-linking, related posts, comments. These are all data-points flowing into one another as a real-time conversation. The “new publication” model utilizes few, if any of these differentiators.

What I am especially discouraged by is how closely the new “publication as app” model resembles the CD-ROM boom of the early 90′s. Very much like the iPad publication hype, CD-ROMs where supposed to change the way that media was distributed. CD-ROMs fell from popularity because they where proprietary, not easily shared, difficult to update and did little to further user engagement beyond what was already being offered in the market. I don’t want to come across as an Apple hater or someone who doesn’t think the iPad is a paradigm shift. My issue is with publishers who believe that porting their print materials to a screen and accompanying a few interactive elements is going to save or reinvent their industry.

Equally as offensive to the “interactive” arrangement of JPG and PNG files is the cost model that is being provided for subscribers. Although the cover price is similar to what is found on the traditional newsstand, the development costs don’t seem to warrant the $4.99 app costs that need to be paid every-month for an issue. One hope I had for the new publication model is that without the cost for printing and shipping, that the hyper-engaged advertising opportunity would provide a reduced subscription cost. Instead, users are downloading 400, 500 and even 600MB+ files into their devices to deliver advertising (a issue still pending is how metered bandwidth will affect this model as over-the-air download of these applications is not available via AT&T). Even with the proliferation of broadband, the “web” as a rule is still very lean and content can be provided over a range of bandwidths while maintaining a decent user experience.

The iPad offers so many opportunities for developers and content creators. The massive selection of useful applications is a testament to that. Taking the WIRED and PM samples to task, the solution that should have been implemented is one that provides a subscription “stub” on the device with a framework for the publisher to populate daily or over the course of the month as opposed to a traditional release cycle. This would provide a benefit beyond traditional content delivery and make user engagement more meaningful. This would also lessen the storage footprint and make the application more serviceable to those who have purchased devices with smaller amounts of memory. Advertising would be downloaded on a cycle so that the ad-model itself would apply as it does now. Interactive ads could pull “on-demand” with smaller portions of the ads cached and delivered under a “no-charge” bandwidth model-perhaps the Apple iAd service. I think an offering like this is more valuable and more inline with what the iPad’s benefit is to it’s users: Always-on content delivery that is up-to-the minute.