Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) is looking at using the Android operating system owned by Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and currently used on mobile smartphones (but with the potential for much more). HP could add Google's wares to future netbook PCs in addition to offering nearly decade-old software known as Windows XP like what's currently offered on HP netbooks.While Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ: MSFT) aging Windows XP software is still useful in scaled-down PCs, the multimedia and communications capabilities of that operating system may soon be eclipsed by newer, faster software. But then again, the unreleased Windows 7 operating system may be an excellent replacement for the older Windows XP on netbooks. It'll be brand new, but won't require such lofty computer hardware like Windows Vista does.
Microsoft and Google already have fierce competition now; the fight could escalate when both are competing directly in the operating system software space. Google's Android is already taking on Microsoft's Windows Mobile on smartphones, and now the battle may come to smaller PCs such as netbooks as well. Google's Katie Wilson said "The Android smart-phone platform was designed from the beginning to scale downward to feature phones and upward to mobile Internet devices and netbook-style devices." There's your sign.
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