Google announced its new Googlebook laptop platform yesterday, and so far I’ve been left asking, “Why?” Why is Google blowing up its Chromebook and ChromeOS platform for this ?

I’ve been excited by the prospect of Android and ChromeOS unifying under the long-rumored Aluminium OS . The theory was that Aluminium might unite Android and ChromeOS under one house, simultaneously turning Android phones into portable Chromebook desktops , fixing the mess that is Android tablets, and broadening the scope of actual Chromebook laptops.

Instead, we’ve got the Googlebook; an awkwardly named line of laptops with no hardware details (aside from a glowing light bar and a separate acknowledgement from Intel ) running an OS that barely looks different from ChromeOS. Google didn’t spend time telling us what or who Googlebooks are for.…