Earlier this year, Google replaced Andy Rubin, Senior Vice President of Android, with Sundar Pichai, SVP of Chrome.  Rubin did not leave Google, but is now a part of Project X, developing more game-changing products for his parent company.

The C-level swap out was accompanied by rumors that Chrome and Android will soon be merging, or that Android will ultimately be replace by Chrome all together to create a unified experience across multiple devices, from Chromebooks to smartphones and tablets.

Though Google Chairman Eric Schmidt denied that the merger outright, some still think that Chrome should indeed replace Android, solving many of the scalability issues Google currently faces with its highly fragmented ecosystem.

So why should Google merge Chrome and Android?  Better yet, why should Chrome replace Android?

3 Reasons why Chrome should replace Android

Fragmentation

The number one problem Android faces is fragmentation.  Though Android and Chrome OS are both Linux-based and open sourced, Android gets forked more than Chrome.  OEMs tweak Android according to their taste, and oftentimes you wouldn’t even know that a device is running Android unless you look for signs of its underlying OS.  Android gets forked so much that even if an update is available for an Android-powered device, not all the devices can be updated.

Chrome, on the other hand, is browser-based.  So when an update is released, all the Chromebooks, no matter what brand it is, gets updated.  If Chrome takes Android’s seat, Google will have an update roll-out that’s more in line with Apple, while still allowing the flexibility of a multi-vendor device market.

Unified OS

It’s quite confusing to think about why Google needs two operating systems, especially when you take into consideration that Chromebooks are mobile devices, too.  Why didn’t Google just use Android for its netbooks?  Or, why did Google create Android when it planned on making its own OS in the first place?

The answer here could be due to the fact that Google was weighing whether Android or Chrome would be more popular and practical.  Android proved to be quite popular, Chrome OS, maybe not as much.  So why replace something that’s already popular with consumers?  Practicality may win out in this situation.  Chrome, you could say, is more stable than Android because of the whole fragmentation issue that comes with the mobile OS.

Branding

As our own Mike Wheatley pointed out in an earlier article, Google is all about its own name or brand.  Android was something it acquired, it wasn’t Google-made.  Not to mention the high profile law suits that Android’s caused over the years, facing industry giants like Oracle and Microsoft for licensing agreements.  So by eliminating Android, Google will redirect the focus to its own brand once again.