I'm not quite sure how many of you are acquainted with Microsoft's history, and just how the Redmond-based giant evolved from the small software company behind the Windows operating systems into the software/hardware/gaming devices/entertainment/connected services/etc. behemoth we're seeing today. Well, those of you who are might actually notice somewhat of a parallel evolution in the case of one of Microsoft's biggest adversaries, at this moment, namely Google.

So, while up until now, Google ventured only indirectly into the field of hardware, it seems that the future holds some pretty big surprises in this direction, at least according to the latest rumors originating from TechCrunch (which might actually have a lot of truth to them, given the editor’s insider connections).

As you might remember, back in November, Google went public with the first beta of its netbook-oriented Chrome OS, which we tested for ourselves (albeit while running in a virtual machine). Back then, there were talks about the development of a Chrome OS netbook reference design, but nothing serious.

However, TechCrunch’s editor seems to have somehow uncovered the fact that the search giant actually selected a certain hardware manufacturer for building a full-fledged Google netbook (no, no co-branding involved, this will apparently be an all-Google device). Plus, it seems that it did a lot more than simply selecting a partner, it already provided the basic technical design for this future device, which will apparently be sold under the Google brand directly to consumers (of course, some telcos might also be involved).

Now, of course, everyone will simply die to find out the future netbook's tech specs. Unfortunately, those haven't been provided yet (and we suspect this won't happen very soon, either), but there are some speculations, which tend to favor an ARM processor, combined with the NVIDIA Tegra platform that has already proven its worth in mobile computing (albeit just as far as the Android OS is concerned). But we'll be watching and we'll let you know just how things will unfold as far as this very hot issue is concerned.


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