The massive image: ChromeOS and Android have historically served two distinct buyer bases, however that’s about to alter and earlier than many anticipate. The massive “OS merger” in Mountain View is underway, although we nonetheless lack crucial particulars about what’s going to come out of this probably messy course of.
In a current interview, Sameer Samat, President of the Android Ecosystem, revealed that ChromeOS and Android are formally merging right into a single platform. In fact, Google has been regularly mixing the 2 working environments for years. Stating that the merger is lastly taking place merely confirms what many within the business have lengthy suspected and speculated about.
Curiously, this announcement got here throughout a wide-ranging dialog about the way forward for Android, Gemini, and associated subjects. In the course of the interview, Samat seen TechRadar Editor Lance Ulanoff utilizing a MacBook Professional and requested what apps he was utilizing to handle Apple gadgets, amongst different duties.
“I requested as a result of we will be combining ChromeOS and Android right into a single platform, and I’m very focused on how individuals are utilizing their laptops today and what they’re getting completed,” Samat stated.
Google started growing ChromeOS in 2009 as a part of the open-source ChromiumOS undertaking, which makes use of the Chrome internet browser as its major consumer interface. The system has primarily been adopted by OEMs creating Chromebooks, sometimes designed for an always-online expertise with restricted app compatibility and customization choices.
For sure, Google’s priorities have shifted and the corporate is seen betting the whole lot on AI together with the opposite Huge Tech gamers. Whereas the corporate has made substantial efforts to innovate Android lately, the ChromeOS platform has remained comparatively stagnant. Android retains thriving to an extent, and that is seemingly why Samat is now speaking about Android absorbing ChromeOS.
ChromeOS was designed for web-based, multi-window environments on large-screen gadgets, whereas Android has primarily served smartphones, tablets, and single-window apps. Nonetheless, Google has been actively working to deliver a multi-window, large-screen computing expertise to Android as properly.
Android 16 now features a much-improved desktop mode that enables a number of apps for use on exterior shows. In the meantime, ChromeOS is more and more incorporating Android applied sciences to assist the newest cellular options. At this level, merging the 2 methods appears nearly inevitable, despite the fact that the method is much extra complicated than it’d seem.
Chromebooks have historically been constructed on x86 processor structure, particularly in higher-end fashions utilizing Intel and AMD chips. Android gadgets, in contrast, are predominantly powered by Arm-based processors, which stay the usual for smartphones and tablets.
Unifying these two computing platforms might show difficult, relying on whether or not Google plans to merge them in future gadgets solely or deliver backward compatibility. For a glimpse of how tough that could be, simply go ask Microsoft and their decade-long try and make Home windows a totally Arm-compatible ecosystem.
