Google’s ChromeOS delayed until 2011?

At the Web 2.0 Summit today, Google’s Eric Schmidt had some bad news for people wanting ChromeOS Netbooks for Christmas. It ain’t happening.

Earlier this month, a report of of Taiwan pegged ChromeOS Netbook shipping times to “late in November” yet not a peep has been heard from Google.

The last we heard officially about ChromeOS, specifically from Google’s Sundar Pichai in May, was that consumer devices were due in “late fall.” Late fall is ending pretty soon, so those watching Google (GOOG) have been expecting an announcement.

Today, we got one. Google CEO Eric Schmidt, when asked about the availability of new versions of Android and Chrome, said, “Android 2.3 was due in weeks, ChromeOS was due in months.”

That puts the arrival of ChromeOS into 2011. I’ve reached out to Google PR for clarification, but if you have a ChromeOS Netbook on your holiday shopping list, you might want to consider some alternatives.

Schmidt also delineated ChromeOS as an OS for traditional keyboard devices while AndroidOS would continue to be a touch-based platform.

Update: CNN posts that Chrome will be “unveiled before the end of 2010.” (but does that mean I can have a device by then or does Google just say “yep, we’re going to make ChromeOS computers, here’s what they are going to look like). Also Google told me: