Sony to install Google browser on its PCs

Google Inc. said Sony Corp. would install the company’s Chrome Web browser on some of its personal computers.

The Internet giant described the arrangement as a test of a channel to “make Chrome accessible to even more people.”

A Sony spokesman in San Diego didn’t immediately return calls seeking comment.

Tokyo-based Sony predicted in May that it would sell 6.2 million units of its Vaio computer in the year ending in March 2010, up from 5.8 million in the previous year.

Chrome, released last year, is tailored to run Web-based software for uses such as spreadsheets and word processing that it offers to businesses and consumers.

Microsoft Corp.’s Internet Explorer software had 67% of the browser market in February, and Mozilla Firefox claimed 22%, Apple Inc.’s Safari had 8% and Chrome had 1.2%, according to Net Applications, a Web-tracking firm in Aliso Viejo.