HP looking into Android for netbooks?

There have been a lot of rumors regarding Android running on netbooks for what seems like a while now. There are some who have managed to get the OS running on netbooks of some sort, but nothing official as of yet. If HP is any indication, there’s a chance that may change at some point.

It seems HP is looking into the viability of the Android OS. The company won’t say anything official aside from the fact that it wants to examine all possibilities that it could use to make their customers happy, or that their competitors could use. It seems the Wall Street Journal has sources claiming the company is testing Android for a netbook. HP currently uses Windows and a heavily modified Ubuntu distribution on their Mini line of netbooks, making the possibility of an Android-based netbook seem fairly plausible to offer more of a choice. However, if HP does to Android what they did to their Ubuntu distro “MIE” it might not be received all that well.

If HP, one of the largest computer manufacturers is looking into Android, it wouldn’t be all that surprising if other companies are doing the same thing for their netbooks. It’s a small, open-source OS, which would make sense for the limited specs of netbooks. What remains to be seen, however, is how well the apps will work on netbooks. Sure, the apps work fine on the G1, but they were mostly designed specifically for smartphones running Android. For at least a short while, there’s a good chance a few might get annoyed with how the apps work on the screen of a netbook. These issues will work themselves out if and when there’s an Android netbook on the market finally, but right now it just seems a bit strange to want a 9 to 10 inch screen running an OS with apps made for 3 inch screens.

Read [Rueters]