According to the Register, Google is planning to provide an own-brand Windows-less PC and sell the low-cost system through a partnership with retail giant Wal-Mart. The machine and/or the sales deal could be announced as early as this coming Friday.

Crucially, the rig is said to be based on Google’s own operating system – most likely Linux in Google clothing – rather than Windows.

Although this has been tried before, writes Karl Long in Customer Experience Strategy, “the difference is Customer Experience… Google has proven it can develop world class, easy to use software, search, email, maps, shopping, oh and it has figured out how to provide the software free and supported through unobtrusive, profitable advertising.”

“Everyone may role their eyes when I say google is successful because they provide the best Customer Experience, and that’s because many people think Customer Experience means bells and whistles, or features etc. No Customer Experience is the balance between business goals and customer needs. It is understanding that customer needs is not a static point in time, but a gradient, a relationship curve with increasing trust, engagement, promise and reward. Google with its perpetual beta software and “invite only” strategies, where not thinly veiled attempts at “viral” marketing, they were genuine attempts to test and refine their software, which probably cost them a ton of money initially, and would have been a tough sell at other companies.”

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