Report: Google Will Aim for a Merger of Android and Chrome OS

This week, Google introduced a new Chromebook and a new Chromebox--both systems designed around the company's Chrome OS. The moves, along with recent comments from Google leaders, illustrate that Google is not throwing in the towel on Chrome OS, despite a lukewarm market reaction to it. Other comments from Google leaders pointed toward an event that many people have scoffed at for years: the eventual merger of the Android mobile OS and Chrome OS.

All the way back in 2009, Google co-founder Sergey Brin was saying that Android and Chrome OS might merge "over time." As Android and Chrome OS took shape, though, lots of tech journalists noted that they are aimed at different types of devices and have differing architectures, making a merger unlikely. This debate has also gone on around the issue of whether Google will ever release a Chrome OS tablet, or leave the market to Android tablets.

This week, as Tom's Hardware reports, Google's vice president of engineering Linus Upson said that the company is not working on a Chrome OS tablet. Instead, "Google expects to see a slow convergence between Chrome OS and its popular mobile platform for tablets and smartphones, Android," the site reports.

Upson was apparently careful to note that the convergence doesn't mean that Google will head toward a single platform that might run on everything from smartphones to portable computers. But from a user experience perspective, it sounds like the Android OS and Chrome OS will resemble each other more and more.

This, of course, can make application development for the platforms less fragmented and difficult. Already, there are solutions for running Android applications on desktop and laptop computers. Wouldn't it be good if Android apps ran seamlessly and easily on any Chrome OS-based device? Look for that to happen--and soon.