Google Chrome OS and Android OS to merge in future

Right now Android is for mobile phones and Chrome is for netbooks primarily

Google currently has two separate operating systems in development – Android for mobile phones, which has been in existence for a while, and Chrome OS, which they recently announced but not released yet. Right now the strategy and objective for developing two different products for different platforms was that Chrome OS is a totally web-based system, and all the applications are web apps. On the other hand, Android runs desktop applications. So answering a question on whether Android apps will run on Chrome OS during the recent Google webcast, VP Product marketing Sundar Pichai told that as of today, they won’t run. He did not say there would never be.

Wiseandroid reports that according to CNET, Sundar has mentioned something like “Android and Chrome will likely converge over time.”He apparently also mentioned that Google wanted to spur some sort of competition internally between the two teams of developers.

But from what I understand, Google envisions the merging of netbooks and smartphones in the future. This will give them the option to merge these two operating systems as well.

Chrome OS concept came out of the Chrome browser Google introduced about 14 months ago. It separates itself from the rest of the world in the fact that it is faster, simpler and more secured. Chrome OS inherits the same features, which Google thinks will be possible being in the cloud. Android, on the other hand, is a desktop OS that has taken the handheld world by storm. In fact Android is now on third position in terms of no. of users using it – behind only iPhone OS and Blackberry. It has a huge pool of third-party software that makes life really simpler.

Google has been really pushing the web with its recent products like Gmail, Chrome, Google Docs, Google wave and now Chrome OS - this is pioneering cloud computing. Chrome OS will be on a system that has its hardware custom-made for the OS. This will make the experience all the more seamless and engaging – as Google promises. On the downside, this means you’ll have to purchase a Chrome OS machine and not the OS alone.

Both Android and Google Chrome OS are the next generation Operating Systems based on Linux kernel. CEO Eric Schmidt told in a conversation that they wish to keep both Chrome and Android separate – Chrome is for netbooks and low-configuration computers, and Android is for handhelds and mobiles. It is part of Google long-term vision of moving the information and data to web – the cloud.