Why Google’s ambitions in the notebook market hinge on an Android-Chrome merger

Chromebooks haven’t exactly taken the world by storm so far, but that doesn’t mean Google (GOOG) is giving up on its vision for browser-centric notebook computers anytime soon. In a new piece over at Time’s TechLand blog, Creative Strategies analyst Ben Bajarin says that Google’s upcoming merger of Android and its Chrome operating system makes it much more likely that Chromebooks will become attractive to consumers going forward.

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“Right now, Chrome OS is stuck in a clamshell, PC-like form factor,” Bajarin explains. “The merging of Android into the Chrome OS solution could open the door to Chrome OS-based phones and tablets as well. As we know, the Chrome OS solution allows for extremely low-cost hardware because of how light a client it is, which means that a Chrome-based solution for phones and tablets could conceivably lower cost barriers.”

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Bajarin thinks that being able to run Android apps on Chromebook notebooks would also provide an enormous boost to the operating system and that app developers will flock to the platform once they are “able to design both Android and Chrome web apps with the same set of tools, consistency and unified application stores.”

This article was originally published on BGR.com