Google might have a radical plan to beat Apple’s iPad – turn ChromeOS into Android and take over the tablet world

Is Google planning to poach the high-end tablet market?

· TechRadar

News By Darren Allan published 19 November 2024

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)
  • Google is apparently planning to transform ChromeOS into Android
  • This new OS could be the best of both worlds for tablets
  • It could be the OS to power a rumored Pixelbook laptop

Google could be planning to completely change ChromeOS and essentially turn it into Android, in an effort to build an operating system that’s better suited to tablets – and poaching iPad buyers from Apple.

Android Authority claims to have a source (as ever, an anonymous one) who describes a fresh initiative underway at Google which is a multi-year project to effectively transform ChromeOS into Android.

This would come with some obvious benefits – instead of working across two operating systems, desktop (well, laptop) and mobile, Google would just have to develop the one multi-platform OS.

And it’d address a serious problem Google has faced: Android’s failure, as it stands, to capture enough tablet market share, and specifically premium tablets, where Apple’s iPad very much holds court. This is an area where hybrid 2-in-1 Chromebooks have failed to make a meaningful impact, too.

So, the idea would be to forge a new path forward, one that makes better use of the development resources at Google.

It’s debatable exactly what the end result might look like, mainly because it’s still early days, and Google probably doesn’t know itself yet – assuming this rumor is true in the first place. Or it's an idea that Google is currently kicking around, but will eventually boot out of play.

As Android Authority expects it to happen, this is about migrating ChromeOS to the Android platform – while obviously keeping enough of the desktop flavor of the current incarnation of ChromeOS to make it suitable for laptops and tablets.

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