Google wants to make Android for laptops

Google wants to make Android suitable for laptops. This is evident from stories in various American media. It seems that in addition to making its mobile operating system suitable for laptops, the search giant is also sticking to Chrome OS.

All articles based on anonymous sources within the company talk about creating traditional PC hardware with Android, such as Recode’s article. All commercially released smartphones and tablets with Android have a touchscreen. It is unknown whether that would also be a requirement for laptops or whether it would also work without touchscreens.

Android on laptops would at least have access to the Play Store, which currently contains more than a million apps. Google would like to show what Android on laptops will look like for the first time next year. It already gave a small taste of the hardware with the Pixel C, a tablet with Android and a clickable keyboard. However, the Pixel C is still mainly a tablet and runs an unmodified version of Android.

Making Android compatible with traditional PC hardware seems to be bad news for Google’s current laptop operating system, Chrome OS. According to The Verge, affiliated with Recode, the internet company is sticking with Chrome OS but will put less emphasis on it than before. The Wall Street Journal, which first published the report, also says that Google will continue to maintain Chrome OS, despite Android being the more important platform. The paper goes on to point out that director Sundar Pichai said last week that “mobile as a computing paradigm will eventually blend with what we consider desktop today.”