HyperSpace and Mobiln Enter Partnership to Conquer Netbooks, Nettops, MIDs, and Google Chrome OS?

Google’s recently announced Linux-based, cloud operating system,  Chrome OS, has been the talk of the  tech world over the last few days, and rightfully so. Any talk of a fresh OS designed for netbooks (at least, initially) is sure to grab headlines, but when you sex it up by tossing the Big G into the mix, well, it’s world-class news.

But Google isn’t the only player in the netbook OS game. Today, Pheonix Technologies (creators of HyperSpace instant-on) has announced that it’s partenering with Moblin to create a new instant-on that will be visually rich and user friendly. The goal of the team-up is to encourage OEMs and ODMs to package netbooks, nettops, MIDs, and other small-form devices with the upcoming instant-on. It should be noted that HyperSpace isn’t simply a shortcut to get onto the Web;  Phoenix has released HyperSpace Office (an office suite) and has partnered with Adobe Photoshop and Google Picasa (for photo editing and storage), as well as Yahoo (for optimized search).

Certainly, this is a new twist. The battle for small PCs may not simply be a two-way scrap between Google and Microsoft; the HyperSpace/Mobiln tag team may be able to jump in to kick up some dust. Still, no time frames or feature sets been revealed, but we’re hoping this this three-way competition will produce some killer netbook apps.