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Well here’s some more interesting news on a Friday afternoon. According to a report coming out of The Wall Street Journal, it appears that Google has placed Hiroshi Lockheimer, who is an Android Engineer as the head of Chrome OS. Now Sundar Pichai is still in charge of Android, Chrome and Apps, but Hiroshi Lockheimer is now in charge of Chrome OS, specifically. As the WSJ points out Hiroshi Lockheimer won’t have anything to do with Chrome, Chromecast or Chromebook, just engineering on Chrome OS. Which could be a good thing. Maybe we’ll finally get good support for ARM-based Chromebooks like the Acer Chromebook 13.
Google has already shown off how Android apps would run on Chrome OS. Which is the beginning of a merge – of which, I’m not so sure I want to happen. We’ve been thinking, since Sundar Pichai took over Android last year, that Chrome and Android would merge. Although Google has said that won’t be happening. But there are some signs that it might be happening, just not as soon as we’d all like. Last month a handful of Android apps were made available for Chrome OS. I haven’t really had a chance to use them on Chrome OS just yet, but so far it doesn’t look all that great. I’d rather stick with web apps which is what Chrome OS currently has.
So now we have Sundar Pichai in charge of Android, Chrome and Apps. And we also have Hiroshi Lockheimer in charge of Android Engineering and Chrome OS Engineering. I’m willing to bet we’ll be seeing even more integration between the two, than we ever thought we’d see. Especially deep integration. How many of you are excited for a Chrome and Android merger? How many of you are against it? Let us know in the comments below.