Google's new strategy - Chrome and Android merge into one

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On October 30, according to foreign media reports, sources revealed on Thursday that Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet, is planning to merge the PC operating system Chrome with the mobile operating system Android. This move shows that mobile computing has become increasingly dominant.

Sources said that Google's technical staff has been working hard for nearly two years to merge the two operating systems. This work has made progress recently. It is reported that Google plans to officially launch the merged operating system in 2017, and the company will show an early version of the new operating system to the public next year.

Android is currently the most widely used operating system in the world, supporting more than 1 billion smartphones and other devices developed by many manufacturers. As a PC operating system, Chrome is mainly used by laptops and desktops such as Chromebooks. Statistics from market research firm IDC show that Chrome is still a niche product in the PC operating system market, with a share of less than 3%.

Sources said that the new version of Android operating system that Google will launch will also support PCs, allowing users to access the Google Play app store, which currently offers more than 1 million apps. Google hopes to bring profitable services such as search and YouTube to more devices. The company also hopes to cater to the appetite of independent developers so that their apps can be adapted to more devices after slight adjustments.

Sources said that after the merger of Google's two operating systems, Chromebooks will be renamed, but the name has not yet been determined. However, Google intends to continue to keep the Chrome name for mobile and PC browsers.

"Mobile computing as a computing model will eventually converge with what we think of today as desktop computing," Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who oversaw the development of Chrome OS in 2009, told analysts on an earnings call last week.

As one of Google's main competitors in the operating system market, Microsoft has previously taken a similar approach. Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system can support both PCs and smartphones, and allows some applications to run on both devices. However, completely different from Microsoft's approach, Apple still insists on a divide-and-rule stance on the issue of operating systems: iOS is for smartphones and tablets, and OS X is for Macs. Apple CEO Tim Cook said last month that merging the two operating systems "will only weaken their functions and users will not get the best experience."

For Google, the rise of Android and the demise of Chrome represent a major shift for the company. Google was founded in the web age, and the company's original services are still there. Google launched Chrome to drive more traffic to its search engine services. Google built its mobile operating system, Android, from scratch. After some internal debate, Google decided to pursue both operating systems at the same time. But as mobile devices and apps became more popular, Android became a huge success.

The market had long expected the two Google operating systems to merge. Pichai had been in charge of both Chrome and Android after Android co-founder Andy Rubin moved to lead the robotics project in 2013. Last year, Pichai appointed Hiroshi Lockheimer, vice president of Android technology, as head of Chrome as well.

In September this year, Google launched an office laptop Pixel C running the Android operating system. This is also the first product in Google's Pixel product line to abandon the Chrome operating system. Last year, Google also enabled some Android applications to run on Chromebooks.

Chrome and Android are both based on Linux open source code, but sources said that because the two operating systems have significant differences, it will not be easy to merge the two operating systems.

Laptops have keyboards and larger screens than mobile devices, so users often use multiple applications at the same time and transfer content between these applications. Although Android smartphones and tablets can also run multiple applications, they cannot be displayed on the screen at the same time. This also makes it difficult for users to switch between applications.

Chromebook users currently don't have many apps to choose from because the number of Chromebook users is too small and app developers have been reluctant to develop apps for Chromebooks.

Alex Davis, technical manager at Airbnb, said, "Right now we have little interest in developing apps for Chrome OS because the market size of Chrome OS is relatively small." Davis believes that merging the two operating systems may be the right choice for Google because Android is already ubiquitous.

Integrating Chrome into Android will allow Google to win more corporate users for its productivity apps, such as Docs and Sheets, which is a challenge for Google because it has to juggle two operating systems at the same time.