Qualcomm CEO Calls Google's Android PC Merger 'Incredible'

For months, rumors have swirled about the potential merger of Google's two primary operating systems, Android and Chrome OS. Now, those whispers have been given their clearest acknowledgement yet. You may recall back in July when Sameer Samat, President of the Android ecosystem at Google, seemingly confirmed the company's plan to merge the two platforms. In conversation with TechRadar, he said “I asked because we’re going to be combining Chrome OS and Android into a single platform, and I am very interested in how people are using their laptops these days and what they’re getting done.”

Android on PC

Now, at the recent Snapdragon Summit, the project was further teased during an on-stage conversation between Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon and Google’s Rick Osterloh. Osterloh, Google's head of platforms and devices, explained the reasoning behind the move. "In the past, we've always had very different systems between what we are building on PCs and what we are building on smartphones," he said. "We've embarked on a project to combine that. We are building together a common technical foundation for our products on PCs and desktop computing systems."

This unification will allow Google to "leverage all of the great work we're doing together on our AI stack, our full stack, bringing Gemini models, bringing the assistant, bringing all of our applications and developer community into the PC domain." Osterloh concluded, "I think this is another way in which Android is going to be able to serve everyone in every computing category."

The most exciting reaction came from Amon, who has already seen a prototype of the new software. "I've seen it, it is incredible," Amon told the audience. "It delivers on the vision of convergence of mobile and PC. I can't wait to have one."

Desktop Mode

This new direction is already visible through recent developments. Android's new Desktop Mode in Android 16 and beta versions of Chrome for Android that support extensions are key indicators of this unification. These advancements are aimed at making Android a more robust and adaptable platform for larger screens, a historic challenge for the mobile-first OS.

The convergence also raises questions about the future of the "Chrome OS" and "Chromebook" brands. Given that Android is expected to become the overarching OS, a rebranding seems likely. While the release date remains unknown, the public comments from key executives suggest the project is well underway, signaling a potential revolution in how we use our devices.