Google reveals its Android for PC is coming next year

Google’s Sameer Samat explains what’s next for Android and ChromeOS. One of the biggest stories out of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit in Maui isn’t just about Qualcomm — it’s how Google is finally merging Android and ChromeOS to create a new operating system for computers. Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon revealed that it’s finally happening, and now, a Google exec has revealed when it’s happening, too. It’s “something we’re super excited about for next year,” said Google’s Sameer Samat, head of Android Ecosystem, at the tail end of Qualcomm’s announcement keynote. More: If you think about the laptop form factor, we’ve had ChromeOS for a long time and we’re super committed to that platform and it’s been really successful for us, we’ve learned a lot from it as well. We also have Android tablets that have been super successful, they’re becoming more productivity machines all the time. So I think the opportunity for us that we see is how do we accelerate all the AI advancement that we’re doing on Android and bring that to the laptop form factor as rapidly as possible, and also have the laptop and the rest of the Android ecosystem work seamlessly together. So what we’re doing is we’re basically taking the ChromeOS experience and re-baselining the technology underneath it on Android. So that combination is something we’re super excited about for next year, and we’re working with yourselves and others on it, and we can’t wait. (I’m not sure about that whole “Android tablets have been super successful” part, but hey.) Neither Qualcomm nor Google have said precisely how they’re working together on the combined OS, but Qualcomm doesn’t just make the most popular flagship Android phone processor — here’s the new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 that’ll likely appear in the next Samsung Galaxy — but also PC chips now. Today, it announced the Snapdragon X2 Elite and Elite Extreme with claims that they’re the most efficient chips available for Windows PCs. That announcement came without a mention of Google or Android or Chrome, but it wouldn’t be surprising if an Android for PC targeted those chips or similar.