Owning more of the toolchain (front and backends) will offer more control and, thus, integration with a more modern development environment. Much like how Apple

Owning more of the toolchain (front and backends) will offer more control and, thus, integration with a more modern development environment. Much like how Apple released Swift this year to replace Objective C in the long run, I imagine Google is positioning itself for a similar evolution with, say, Dart to bridge native and Web app development. If you assume Chrome and Android will eventually be the same thing, certain moves by Google over the last year start to make more sense.