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With Google readying its own Nexus Chromebook, will it marry Chrome OS to Android?

Summary: A report from Taiwan states that Google is working on its own house-brand Nexus Chromebook with a touch screen. This, in turn, suggests that it might run a mixture of Android and Chrome OS.

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

By for Linux and Open Source |

Chrome-on-Android
The next Chromebook might just combine Android and Chrome to make a truly effective tablet/desktop operating system.

The China Commercial Times (Chinese language link) reports that Google has placed hardware orders with Taiwanese manufacturers Compal Electronics and Wintek to produce a Chromebook with a 12.85-inch touch display. Could this be the start of Google merging Android and Chrome OS?

Chromebooks are lightweight laptop and desktop devices that use the Chrome Web browser for their primary interface, with Linux on the back end. There's really no reason why they couldn't use Android to support the Chrome interface. Indeed, Chrome is now the default Web browser for Android 4.x and higher.

While Chromebooks don't get as many headlines as Microsoft Surface and Apple iPads, the devices are quite popular. For example, Samsung's ARM-powered Chromebook  is Amazon's top-selling laptop computer, as of November 27th. At the same time, Android now owns 72% of the entire mobile devices market--not just smartphones.

Review: The ARM-powered Samsung Chromebook

What would you get if you put these Android and Chrome OS together in a touch-enabled laptop? You might well get Windows' true desktop successor.

Think about it. Chromebook and Android smartphones and tablets are taking off. Microsoft's Surface marriage of the tablet and desktop is on the rocks. Pure PC sales, of course, continue to decline.

The Chromebook 2012 Gallery

Microsoft's reaction to its falling market share--and certainly its faltering market dominance--has been to try to follow Apple's path in creating a closed hardware/software ecosystem with Windows 8 and RT. Apple, with its charisma and dedicated fan base (and I do mean that in a nice way), has managed to get away with it. Microsoft, not so much. Google is offering a much more open path for both developers and users, on both Android and Chrome, that's clearly gaining in popularity. Wouldn't a combination Chrome/Android Linux desktop prove a winner?

This isn't a difficult hurdle. Android, with version 4.2, supports multiple users. Previously, this was always a weak point for business desktops. The actual merger of Android and Chrome wouldn't technically be difficult to do. Both are Linux-based system that use Webkit for Web browsing.

Leaving aside the technical aspects, Google co-founder Sergey Brin said as far back as November 2009 that, "Android and Chrome will likely converge over time." That time may well be sometime in 2013.

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Topics: Linux, Android, Google, Laptops, Tablets, PCs

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51 comments
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  • With Google readying its own Nexus Chromebook, will it marry Chrome OS to A

    Chrome OS with Android, maybe.
    daikon
    Reply 1 Vote

    • "Marry"?? LOL

      ChromeOS will be DITCHED for an obviously much richer and more capable Android. HTML5 as a replacement for rich desktop platform is a pipe dream. Time to wake up and smell the reality.
      LBiege
      Reply 3 Votes

    • I am not sure about the Android bit.

      Google has shown videos of a touch interface for ChromeOS a while back. Also Google never releases new software without first pre-releasing the software. I think this is most likely a testing device to be issued to test out a touch version of Chromebooks (like the CR-48 was) rather than a production touch laptop.

      There is also no sense in adding Android to ChromeOS unless Android can be made to work in the cloud, because that would remove Chromebooks advantage over other available OSes is its zero maintenance, stateless (ie. no data, settings or configuration stored locally), and zero touch administration features which are its main advantages. If you want Android local apps, then it would be better to install a Chrome browser on an Android device, than vice versa.
      Mah
      Reply Vote

  • A terrible proposition for consumers

    Built on stolen IP, that mines your own PI for Google's gain and is so insecure and malware laden that it gives thieves easy access to the rest of your personal information.

    You can't polish a turd SJVN
    hubivedder
    Reply 5 Votes

    • But you can.....

      Roll it in glitter. q.v. Windows 8
      Alan Smithie
      Reply Vote

      • You do realize

        That Chromebook is crapware with a premium price ... even at the lowest price.

        You can buy better hardware for the same price and get a WORKING OS (pick whatever you like) that can do a million times more without signing a contract that allows for data mining.
        wackoae
        Reply 2 Votes

      • Sorry ... wrong post.

        The post above was supposed to be a few post lower.

        ZDNet needs to bring back edit.
        wackoae
        Reply Vote

    • @hubivedder: "Built on stolen IP"

      could you document what you are talking about?
      BiCr
      Reply 1 Vote

    • You CAN polish a turd

      Mythbusters proved it a couple seasons ago.
      Robert Kent
      Reply Vote

  • If you are not impressed with Windows 8

    you'll be even less impressed with this.

    We view the Surface with a watchful eye, while Chomebooks we have classified along the lines of an Etch a Sketch, which isn't fair in a way, in the sense that we are denigrating a useful product: The Etch a Sketch.

    An Android version of a Chromebook would just hurt Android even more.
    Tim Cook
    Reply 4 Votes

    • The problem with Windows 8 isn't the touchscreen...

      It is the Mattel-Toys'R Us user interface called Metro from Windows Phone and its Frankenstein graft onto Windows 7 that makes Windows 8 the crud it is. There is nothing wrong with the hardware or the hardware that a decent OS like Android wouldn't fix.

      Nokia found out the hard way that you couldn't put Metro on a phone without seriously damaging your business - and that is on a device where touch makes sense. I suspect that Windows 8 hardware manufacturers will learn the same thing is true on tablets, PCs and laptops. The only grace with Windows 8 on a PC or laptop is that unlike a smartphone or a tablet, you can avoid actually using it even if it does stick itself irritatingly in front of your nose at every opportunity.
      Mah
      Reply 4 Votes

      • That's a bunch of poppycock

        to be sure.
        Challenger R/T
        Reply 1 Vote

    • Sorry, but I disagree

      Chromebook with Android would be the best of both worlds. Most Chrome apps only work while you're nline.
      Robert Kent
      Reply 1 Vote

    • If you are not impressed with Windows 8 you'll be even less impressed with

      IF you are, indeed, THE Tim Cook we've all heard about in the news recently, then I think you might be a little crazy. I think the only thing hurting Android right now are its competitors throwing mindless, nay, meaningless litigation at it's business partners, leaving them no choice but to choose Win8 (which really is like etch a sketch plus) instead of something more stable and reliable (such as Chrome or Android). I, for one, welcome Android and its open source cousin, Chrome OS, with open arms, providing I can use Google Play on the Android end.

      Furthermore, Mac is now an overpriced Wintel option running a custom UNIX install (In other words, Apple is the new Sun Microsystems, minus the free OpenOffice).
      Richard Estes
      Reply Vote

  • And dual-boot with touch-enabled Ubuntu 14.04

    Come late April, 2014.
    Rabid Howler Monkey
    Reply 1 Vote

  • Chromebooks are taking off.

    No they're really not. The numbers are tiny.

    If you hate Microsoft turning Windows into a touch based system, why would Chromebooks (designed for laptops too) be any better?
    bradavon
    Reply 3 Votes

    • Learn to read.

      Chrome book BESTLELLING on Amazon.

      Yes I do know that Amazon is not the biggest reselling channel but still
      przemoli
      Reply 3 Votes

      • Best selling .... as in paid to be in the list

        The SALES numbers don't show a "best seller" at any point in history. With less than 20K Chromebooks manufactured .... you have to be a moron to believe that it is a "best seller"

        And then you have the high rate of returns ... when people realize that the cheap crap they got was really crap.
        wackoae
        Reply 1 Vote

        • Can't pay Best Buy

          To say they are sold out. Stopped to look at one and the nearby rep told me they had both sold out in the first hour of black Friday.
          storm14k
          Reply 1 Vote

          • Maybe,

            they just ordered 2, you know, like Black Friday ads. Once those two sold after sitting on the warehouse shelf for 6 months, Best Buy just didn't bother to order any more, but the item is still in the database 'cause no one took it out.
            Cynical99
            Reply 1 Vote
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