Google believes that Chrome OS will be widely adopted around the world. That's not too big of a surprise: even if the search giant thought it would fail, it wouldn't say so publicly. What's interesting is that the company thinks it can use the Chrome browser to help push the Chrome OS.

Last month, Google's CEO position switched owners: from Eric Schmidt to the company's co-founder Larry Page. Schmidt remains on Google's board in the role of Executive Chairman, so he still has responsibilities and relevant things to say. DigiTimes summarized his thoughts during a teleconference with Taiwan media this week:

A key factor to the success of Chrome OS is that Chrome browser has attracted 160 million users globally and the number is still growing, Schmidt noted. Although Chrome OS does not have all the functions of Windows, it is much less expensive, faster and easier to operate, and offers better information security, which appeals to business users, Schmidt pointed out.

Chrome has been steadily gaining market share ever since it launched in September 2008. At the end of April 2011, the browser was already at 12 percent.

Users like Chrome for multiple reasons, but at the core it's still something they are familiar with: a browser running on top of an operating system. Chrome OS is an operating system that is basically just a browser. Users aren't going to embrace such a huge change very quickly, if at all.

Schmidt also reiterated that Google is hoping Chrome OS will initially see success in the business segment. We've heard this tune before. In November 2010, Linus Upson, Google's vice president for engineering in charge of Chrome, declared that 60 percent of businesses could immediately replace their Windows machines with computers running Chrome OS.

Earlier this month, Google unveiled Chromebook and Chromebox devices. It won't be long now before the first impressions start to tell the story.