Apple Inc (AAPL)

[Tex]

re taking over the browser

I don't think Google cares whose browser you use, or who Google pays for referrals to its search engine, so long as everyone has access to the things needed to make Google's apps valuable.

Chrome is about delivering a runtime environment to the whole world for free that will let people develop apps that don't care about the OS. Google plans being the first beneficiary of this environment -- it wants to deliver lots of applications -- but by devaluing the OS, Google can make whole machines cheaper and thus increase the connected fraction of the population. This increases the market for Google's products and services, so devaluing the OS is good business for Google.

Take care,
--Tex.