Gmail Creator Paul Buchheit Predicts: ‘ChromeOS Will Be Killed Next Year (or “Merged” With Android)’

Here’s what he wrote on FriendFeed:

ChromeOS has no purpose that isn’t better served by Android (perhaps with a few mods to support a non-touch display).

I was thinking, “is this too obvious to even state?”, but then I see people taking ChromeOS seriously, and Google is even shipping devices for some reason.

I’ve had this thought ever since Chrome OS was announced. The logic is: if everything in Chrome OS is a WebKit browser view, and Android has a good WebKit browser, then isn’t Android capable of everything Chrome OS is, but with the added goodness of native apps? I’m not saying that’s right. And these Cr-48 prototypes seem to be getting decent reviews.

I’m just saying, if I quit every app on my MacBook other than Chrome and ran it full-screen, I’d be miserable.

★ Wednesday, 15 December 2010