November 23rd, 2009
Sergey Brin: Google Android, Chrome OS likely to converge
Google’s two operating systems, mobile Android and desktop Chrome OS, will likely converge as a single OS in the future, said Google co-founder Sergey Brin.
“Android and Chrome will likely converge over time,” Brin said in an informal discussion with reporters after the company’s Chrome OS presentation last Thursday. Brin added that the common Linux and Webkit code base present in both projects facilitates convergence.
Brin’s response finally addresses many questions raised by Chrome OS’s original announcement in July, which some deemed puzzling as the company successfully grows its Android platform in the mobile space.
As the mobile and desktop platforms converge, why develop two revolutionary operating systems at the same time?
For now, the projects are distinctly separate, and Android chief Andy Rubin has said that Google Android has a lot of mobile-specific code that doesn’t address desktop devices the way Chrome OS can (and vice-versa).
“As [Google vice president of product management] Sundar [Pichai] said in his presentation, we’re reaching a perfect storm of converging trends where computers are behaving more like mobile devices, and phones are behaving more like small computers,” Google said in a statement in response to questions about future convergence of the platforms, as reported by CNET. “Having two open source operating systems from Google provides both users and device manufacturers with more choice and helps contribute a wealth of new code to the open source community.”
Andrew J. Nusca is an associate editor for ZDNet and SmartPlanet.
See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
