Cloud computing took a serious hit with Google’s exit from search business, and its subsequent service issues, in mainland China, announced Canalys.

While cloud solutions will remain appealing for certain customers with limited international ambitions, the platform’s inherent security and access issues will herald a shift back to traditional software models, said the industry analyst group in a recently issued report.

"Chrome OS is ideal for ‘smartbooks’ and will lead consumers further into cloud computing," says Canalys in its recent Notebook Pulse Report.

Canalys therefore expects that devices running chrome OS will be bundled with mobile data contracts, and support for ARM-based processors will make it an ideal ‘smartbook’ OS.