One of the raging battles in technology today is over software platforms. Whoever runs the dominant operating system of the future becomes the gatekeeper to content and software services, charging commissions or netting advertising dollars. So as more devices talk to one another, you'd think it makes sense for mobile platforms to join forces with those on traditional desktops, in the same way Microsoft has created a fused operating system that works across both desktop and mobile devices, called Windows 8.
Right? Not necessarily.
Google chairman Eric Schmidt has said his company will not be merging its operating systems Android (for mobile) and Chrome (which acts as both a browser and operating system) for a "very, very long time" to create a single, unified platform like Windows 8.
"They solve different problems," he said, in response to a question about their potential merger at Google's Big Tent Summit in India.
That will surprise some. Google last week shifted oversight of Chrome and Android to the responsibility of one person, Sundar Pichai.
Pichai was previously in charge of Chrome and software applications like Google Drive and Gmail, while Android had been run by Andy Rubin, the mobile platform's architect. Rubin is being moved to an as-yet-undefined role.
Fuelling the rumours that Google wants Chrome and Android to fuse was the appearance of a new, metallic statue of the Android logo at Google's Mountain View campus. Android community manager Paul Wilcox had posted the photo of the statue, but wouldn't confirm if it was made from chromium, adding in the comments to his post that it was "not meant to be a sneaky announcement of a new version of Android."
Schmidt said that Google made its decisions "based on where the technology takes us. Chrome and Chromium are the wold's best HTML5 authoring and development systems. If you're not using Chrome as an advertiser, for example, right now you should be using Chrome. It's faster and safer and more secure than any other browser choices. In Android, which is primarily a Java-like development environment, it solves a different problem."
"There's going to be more commonality for sure," he added, "but they're certainly going to remain separate for a very, very long time because they solve different problems."
Watch a video of the discussion with Schmidt here, with his answer to the Android-Chrome question at around the 3-minute mark.
