The WSJ reports that Hiroshi Lockheimer, Vice President of engineering for the Android OS, is now in charge of the engineering team over at Chrome OS. This is leading to more speculation of the two operating systems merging into one. The rumors have been floating around for a little while now, and, as Android apps begin to work in Chrome OS, it makes sense that Google may be going that direction. With the Nexus Player just introduced and Chromebooks and Android devices becoming commonplace, the time for a unified OS is coming near.
There has been speculation that Apple might be moving in the same direction, but other than Continuity in iOS8 and Yosemite, there hasn’t been a clear indication of that happening.
One might make the argument that Google is trying to make a seamless ecosystem of devices by merging the two operating systems. Imagine users toting around a Nexus 6 phone, Nexus 9 tablet and a Chromebook that all work together handing tasks off to each other. Add to that the Nexus Player, a streaming media device that will compete with Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV, and you have a nearly complete package. While Google has traditionally been a search company that makes revenue from advertising, it’s not hard to see they are expanding way beyond that scope. It’s clear that Apple is their biggest competition, and moving their devices into tighter integration will further cement users into place.
It’s going to be interesting to see if putting Lockheimer over both Android and Chrome engineering teams accelerates the merging process and we see a beta product sometime soon. What do you think of the possibility of Android and Chrome merging? Let us know in the comments below or on social media.
[button link=”http://www.zdnet.com/will-android-and-chrome-marry-7000034816/” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: ZDNet[/button]
Last Updated on November 27, 2018.
