the separation of chrome os and android puzzled me for a long time. why not merge the two and concentrate resources on a single os? now i suspect they kept the two apart because they serve different purposes. chrome os is designed to reduce the cash microsoft generates from windows -- specifically from desktops and laptops -- much as google apps reduces the cash from office. android is meant to ensure no proprietary operating system dominates on mobile devices. keeping the two divided allows them to focus on their respective objectives more effectively.
anyone have different theories?
ChromeOS is a longer-term, higher-risk, more ambitious OS effort (the all-web OS Google has always wanted) with a fairly niche (by comparison to Android) current market. There's no real compelling reason to tie them together yet. A gradual, eventual convergence makes sense, but that's over a fairly long term.