The first crop of computers powered by Google Inc's Chrome system will start selling in mid-2011 and come with free Verizon Wireless connections for two years, opening another front in its rivalry with Microsoft Corp and Apple Inc.

The new Chrome-based notebooks will come with 100 megabytes of free wireless data transfers per month for two years courtesy of Verizon, executives told reporters on Tuesday.

They are designed to promote Web-centric computing, in which consumers use online applications instead of downloading software to their PCs. To support that, the company started up on Tuesday a Web store selling some 500 games, news and other software appilcations

It seems that the wave of the future is definitely "cloud" computing.  We already started to see that with Apple's MacBook Air.  The MacBook Air comes with no CD/DVD drive (althought you can buy one separate) and with a 64GB or 128GB Solid State drive... which in hard drive terms isn't that big anymore considering I just purchased a new iMac with a 1TB drive.

Overall, I'm pretty excited because with all the app stores cropping up and digital versions for just about everything I could possibly want, I'll no longer need storage space and book shelves for books, CD's, DVD's, software, etc.  And if everything is getting stored in the cloud... then I don't really need a hard drive either.

So what do you think about the "cloud" and how do you think it will affect your work environment?