Paul Buchheit, the creator of Google AdSense technology and the lead developer of Gmail, claims that Chrome OS will not still be here 12 months next year. This comes as quite a shock since Google has been so eager to get the OS and a testing device into developers' hands by offering free devices to those who were chosen after filling out a simple application form.
The post appears on Paul Buchheit's FriendFeed account, a service like Twitter created by Buchheit while he was at Google, and later sold to Facebook, stating that "ChromeOS will be killed next year (or "merged" with Android)."
With Android's increasing popularity, many wondered why Google was even bothering with Chrome OS. The simple answer is that Android was developed for phones, and Chrome OS was developed for netbooks; each platform has a different purpose. Paul Buchheit doesn't feel that Chrome OS extends itself enough, and instead will just be completely killed off or merged with Android.
Merging Android and Chrome OS would also give Android a neat leg-up on the competition, by offering both local and cloud based services all neatly integrated in a single package. Currently, iOS is a local service based platform, with the exception of MobileMe, but that works in a different way. Adding cloud-based features to Android would put a neat spin on mobile computing, especially where there is limited local storage, not to mention the extra accessibility that would become available.
Of course, ChromeOS could also simply just be killed off with lessons learned and perhaps applied to Android, but not much more than that. This is a bold statement from Paul Buchheit, but it may show a grain of truth.
As developers begin to get their hands on Google's new cloud-based OS, it will soon be clear as to how likely Buchheit's prediction is to come true.
Image source: friendfeed.com
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