It marks Chrome's first distribution deal with a hardware vendor, and though Sony's own share of the computer market isn't itself big enough to launch Google's browser into the stratosphere, it's still an important milestone on Chrome's road map.
The financial specifics of the deal weren't disclosed, and a Google spokesperson called the Sony partnership merely "experimental." Still, it's clear the search giant is starting to come out swinging against Microsoft's continuing hold on the browser market along with Mozilla's Firefox.
There's a sense of frustration at Google about Chrome's relatively lackluster adoption at about 2.6% of the global browser market. Chrome product management director Brian Rakowski expresses astonishment that despite how much internet users rely on browsers, telling FT that "it’s absolutely a problem that people don’t know what a browser is, or how to evaluate one" (the company even poked fun at this in a video earlier this year).
The Sony Vaios with Chrome on board have already begun to go on sale. Google indicated it's already in talks with other computer manufacturers to boost distribution through similar deals.