Big Hardware Heavyweights Are Welcoming Open Source Platforms

There are more signs emerging that some of the biggest global technology players in the hardware space are warming up to open source operating systems, even as they appear to cool toward Microsoft Windows. Recently, we've reported on Chromebooks running the Chrome OS platform, and how they have improved dramatically, and are now available at $200 price points that challenge the laptop status quo. (The hot selling $199 Acer C7 is shown here.)

HP and Lenovo are both doing Chromebooks, and there are even signs that the biggest hardware players are interested in Android. 

BlueStacks App Player has been available for some time for Windows users who want to run Android apps on PCs. It runs the apps through emulation, and, at the end of last year, BlueStacks App Player showed up in a version for the Mac. In January, BlueStacks announced  a global distribution deal with Lenovo, the world’s largest PC maker, for preloading the App Player software and service on Lenovo’s Idea-branded consumer PCs.

BlueStacks has actually signed a series of major distribution deals with global brands and manufacturers including Asus, MSI and AMD with more than 100 million PCs preloaded with the App Player software in 2013. The App Player is becoming a force on tablets as well, and many PC users are going to appreciate having access to Android apps from their desktops.

If anyone doubted that Google could become a big player in the operating system space, it's time to drop those doubts. Acer's President recently told Bloomberg that the C7 Chromebook seen at the top of this post accounted for 5 percent to 10 percent of Acer’s U.S. shipments since being released in November.

Without a doubt, hardware devices pre-loaded with open source operating systems are going to proliferate this year.