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Google Chrome OS tablet concept

Google is expected to launch its Chrome Operating System for netbooks and other mobile devices later this year. Chrome OS is based on the Google Chrome web browser, and it’s designed to blur the lines between a desktop operating system and web-based apps. Want to write a document, watch a movie, chat with friends, or do just about anything else? There’s a web app for that.

While Google initially pitched Chrome OS as a netbook operating system, a lot of things have changed since the OS was first announced last year. The biggest change is that while in 2009 netbooks were still the hottest thing in affordable portable computing, tablets are all the rage this year — even if Apple is still the only company with a runaway success story in the tablet space.

So maybe it’s not that surprising that Google is optimizing Chrome OS to run on tablets as well as netbooks. And Download Squad received a tip from a reliable source suggesting that Google is going to kick things off by launching a Google-branded tablet on November 26th.

The tablet will be built by HTC (much like the Google Nexus One Android Smartphone), and it will be sold through Verizon, with the wireless carrier offering the tablet for a subsidized price to customers that sign up for long term service contracts.

There’s no official word on what the tablet will look like or what specs it will have, but a multitouch display is pretty much a given, with Download Squad’s Lee Mathews guessing it will also have a 1280 x 720 pixel or higher resolution screen.