Chrome OS as a platform without versions, potentially even for mobile

Chrome OS is really exciting to me, partially because it is like having an OS on a thumb drive, as some people have done, only even more flexible in some ways, and partially because it will break down many of the platform issues that we commonly run into. Software that works in the browser, or at least in Crome, will do so on any computer that can run Chrome or ChromeOS. 

Recently many people are talking about the growing issue of fragmentation of the Android platform and most people seem to be pretty worried about it. Michael Gartenberg has written a related article for engadget, Will Android Fragmentation Destroy the Platform. I think the crux of this issue has a few factors. 

1. People expect to own phones for too long. 2 years is a long time to wait before getting a new phone and right now phones and their contracts are designed to endure this kind of period. This needs to change if technology is going to continue to also change so rapidly
2. Phone manufacturers having to do too much to make Android work they way they want it. I am afraid I do not know much about what they need to do so this point could be framed slightly inaccurately, however, I think if Android was designed to evolve in a more friendly way and if the efforts to make a phone work on a given platform were less significant, then this kind of issue could be reduced quite a lot. 

In any case, as most have probably read, Chrome OS is currently including designs for various different window styles, which are targeted at various different device form factors, including touch input devices. The one platform they have not mentioned targeting is of course mobile handsets, however I tend to think their could be some value in doing so. ChromeOS on a mobile phone would mean several things.

1. Native support for great browsing.
2. Software independence. Because:

1. ChromeOS auto updates - which is not that significant..
2. Chrome is becoming an industry standard and is really good at running almost every website out there and it is really unlikely that there will suddenly be a new kind of browser that can not run on year, or even two year old hardware. 
3. This would also mean that any apps would work on any other phone or platform with a modern browser. 

Device independence. With android you can already log in and out of your phone easily but with ChromeOS syncing you could imagine setting the experience on all your computing devices at once, and not being particularly miffed if data failure of any kind occurred. 

One issue this raises is how manufacturers can give their users a custom experience, however, given the ChromiumOS is open and adaptable I imagine we could see a version which still supported Chrome syncing and updates to the engine etc. 

Also, issues like a dialer could be solved with some local code or with Google Voice, via the mobile HTML5 client. 

I have included a Phone UI mock up based on the current ChromeOS Touch UI which is on the Chromium website. 

In a lot of ways, I am talking about something similar to what Apple seemed to be presenting when they first released the iPhone, a phone without an app store that just uses web apps, however now, it seems this is becoming a desirable reality for several reasons.(sorry I had a link for that but I forgot where it was - perhaps next time) 

So, what would you think about a Chrome OS phone?

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