Google to merge Chrome OS into Android

Gogle is reportedly merging its two operating systems: Android and Chrome. According to a report in Walls Street Journal, “Google plans to fold its Chrome operating system for personal computers into its Android mobile operating system…”

The report, which cites people familiar with the matter as source, says that the company plans to preview the combined new OS in 2016 and launch the final version in 2017.

“Chromebooks will get a new, as yet undetermined, name, the people familiar with the matter said. Google plans to retain the Chrome name for its internet browser, which runs on both PCs and mobile devices,” says the report. The two will be united under the Android name, which will give PCs that use the operating system access to the Google Play app store, WSJ reported.

The speculated move shows the growing dominance of mobile as a platform. Google’s Android OS has been the undisputable leader in the mobile segment, powering over 80% smartphones globally.

At the recent Nexus launch event, Google revealed that it has over 1.4 billion active users of Android OS.

 

Android OS was born in 2007, two years after the Google acquired mobile software startup Android Inc. The company’s Chrome OS has been developed in-house and was unveiled in 2009.

The first speculations about Android and Chrome OS growing closer started in March 2013 when Andy Rubin, the then head of Google’s mobile business, handed the reins of Android business to current Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Pichai then was senior vice president for Chrome and Apps.

Rubin came to Google in August 2005, when the company acquired has startup Android Inc.