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Ask HN: Why has Google kept Android and Chrome OS separate?
the separation of chrome os and android puzzled me for a long time. why not merge the two and concentrate resources on a single os? now i suspect they kept the two apart because they serve different purposes. chrome os is designed to reduce the cash microsoft generates from windows -- specifically from desktops and laptops -- much as google apps reduces the cash from office. android is meant to ensure no proprietary operating system dominates on mobile devices. keeping the two divided allows them to focus on their respective objectives more effectively.
anyone have different theories?
- wmf 13y agoThe actual reason is just that they're separate on the org chart.
- panabee 13y agonot according to this breakdown of the google management team: http://www.google.com/about/company/facts/management/ http://www.google.com/about/company/facts/management/. even if true, they could combine them on the org chart as well.
- mcintyre1994 13y agoThat changed very recently - I think Sundar Pichai was announced as taking over Android (from Andy Rubin) at I/O this year.
- panabee 13y agotrue, but an org chart is a reflection of strategic priorities -- not the source.
- dragonwriter 13y agoAndroid is (and was when ChromeOS was first released) a fairly mature (though still rapidly evolving, because the mobile OS space isn't a stationary target) mobile OS with well-established marketshare. ChromeOS is a longer-term, higher-risk, more ambitious OS effort (the all-web OS Google has always wanted) with a fairly niche (by comparison to Android) current market. There's no real compelling reason to tie them together yet. A gradual, eventual convergence makes sense, but that's over a fairly long term.