Googlebooks Get a September 15 Launch Date, and ChromeOS May Never Be the Same

Google introduced Googlebook back in May, but it kept many of the important details to itself. That is about to change, since the company has invited the media to a special event in New York City on September 15. That's where it will fully reveal its new laptop platform and the first devices built around it.

And I think the software may end up being more interesting than the laptops themselves.

Googlebooks are a new range of premium laptops built around Gemini Intelligence. Unlike Chromebooks, they use an Android-based platform that brings Android apps and ChromeOS-style web features together. Google first showed the idea in May, with the first models promised for this fall.

The September event should fill in the missing pieces. Google executives will explain the platform and its software. Also journalists will get hands-on time with the first Googlebooks.

Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP and Lenovo are already confirmed as Google's first hardware partners.

We've also seen some of the hardware through leaks. Lenovo and ASUS models have appeared with Google's Glowbar, along with controls built around Gemini.

Here's the thing, though. Googlebook isn't simply a new name for Chromebook.

Google has been working on a new Android-based desktop platform for some time. It has often been called Aluminium OS, but that isn't expected to be its final name.

September 15 could finally give us the answer. Google is expected to talk about the software architecture. They will also explain how it plans to mix Android's native apps with the kind of web experience people know from ChromeOS.

ChromeOS has always made sense on cheap and simple laptops. Googlebook is aiming much higher. Google talks about premium hardware, deep Android support and Gemini features that are built into the way you use the laptop.

One example is Magic Pointer. Move the cursor over something on the screen and Gemini can suggest an action. Point at a date in an email, for example, and it can help create a calendar event. Googlebooks can also create custom widgets from simple prompts.

We still don't know how much the first Googlebooks will cost, and that could decide whether this idea works. Premium Windows laptops and MacBooks aren't easy targets.

But Google has something it never really had with early Chromebooks: Android, Gemini and a huge mobile ecosystem already in place.

September 15 should tell us whether Googlebook is just a better Chromebook or the start of something much bigger. If Google gets this right, ChromeOS may have finally found its successor.