A former high-ranking Googler believes that Chrome OS will either be “killed” by Android, or forced to merge with the popular mobile operating system.
Indeed, Paul Buchheit – who created GMail – also predicts that one of the above-mentioned scenarios are likely to occur within the next year or so.
Still, as Donovan Leiber of ChromeSpot notes, Buchheit is currently a proud Facebook employee, a company which is “not exactly” best friends with the regal lords of Mountain View.
“Perhaps Mr. Buchheit is just stirring the competitive spirit soup. Or maybe he knows Google and its employees incredibly well and knows something we don’t,” writes Leiber.
“[Of course], it’s [certainly] easy to make cases for both sides. [Remember], Android has already become a phenomenal success [by showing] it can transcend to different device types with products like the Samsung Galaxy Tab.”
Leiber also emphasized that Chrome OS was coded for a very distinct device category, and presents users with a fresh and unique way of accessing the Web/Cloud.
“Truthfully, the CR-48 has an interesting and unique offering and proposition, something that Android currently can’t offer and probably won’t in the near future.
“Unless of course they just rename Chrome OS as Android Notebooks or whatever. It is certainly possible they just rebrand Chrome but with the success of the browser, [but] why would they?”
