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Now everyone running for tablet. After the announcement of Apple iPad, Google showed its table concept. It looks like Apple iPad though. Google just recently posted some pictures & a video of their future Chrome OS tablet concept nn the Chromium projects site.

Last week, the world saw Apple’s long anticipated tablet device, the iPad, for the first time. In the aftermath since that announcement, a few things have become clear: it will be great for some people, but its apparent lack of flexibility (at least in its first iteration) may leave something to be desired. It’s increasingly looking like the best alternative will be Google’s Chrome OS, which is clearly on a collision course with the iPad.

The interesting thing is that the video shows browser windows that are treated as objects which can be readily manipulated in the screen for the best use possible depending on the site you are at. Glen Murphy, Google Chrome’s designer, posted this UI concept video along with some images on Google’s official Chromium site.

Chromium is the open source project behind Chrome and ChromeOS. And while Chromium is not actually part of Google, it appears that these mockups were put together by Glen Murphy. In other words, there’s a good chance that the final version of Chrome OS will resemble this.

There is no doubt that the demo is showing that fact that you can multi-task with the tablet for a reason. One of the biggest selling points for a Google tablet as a competitor to the iPad is the fact that you will be able to carry out more than one process at a time.

But the video only explores one concept. The pictures indicate that Google is experimenting with several different UIs. One is using sidebar tabs in order to navigate, another show large buttons above the Chrome tabs in addition to just a screen where you can manipulate the browser that the clip above shows. So further development of a tablet for Chrome OS is anyone’s guess.

It’s worth pointing out that there almost certainly will be multiple “Google Tablets”, given that Chrome OS won’t be tied to a single device. That said, Google is working with select hardware partners to ensure that it runs on devices that are up to its specifications, and there may be one tablet device that is designated as the “Google Tablet”, much like the Nexus One is the “Google Phone”.

Here are the images from Gizmodo

Source: TechCrunch, TheChromeSource, Gizmodo