Dan Olds, an analyst with The Gabriel Consulting Group, said that while adopting Chrome OS will boost Google Apps, the reverse is true as well. Anyone who was considering a move to Google Apps might give the Chrome OS a try. He called it a good one-two punch.

While Google is trying to make inroads against Microsoft's longheld suite of office applications, it's clear that a successful move would be an uphill climb.

Gottheil, however, said Google has the financial resources, industry partners and name recognition to push Chrome OS into a head-to-head fight with Windows.

"It's 100% that [Chrome OS] will make some dent. The question is, how much?" Gottheil said. "I can't quantify it, but I'd guess many of the people who have come to computing more recently, and only for e-mail and IM and seeing the grandkids' pictures, and maybe participating in social networking, they'd use it. And I think there's a class of enterprise users that can be effectively served with Web-only devices. It's not for power users, but for many other users it makes sense."

Rob Enderle, an analyst with the Enderle Group, noted that how much of the Chrome OS -- which he calls a rethinking of the thin client -- is adopted largely depends on which companies Google is able to partner with. He added that partnerships with Hewlett-Packard Co. and IBM could help push the new operating system into the enterprise.