Google Chrome OS keeps focus on notebooks despite tablet explosion

Google will keep the focus of its Chrome operating system on notebooks rather than tablets for now, according to a senior executive at the search company.

Google also has no plans to merge Chrome with its Android mobile operating system, Sundar Pichai, senior vice-president for Chrome at Google, told the Computex PC show in Taipei, according to Reuters.

Web-centric notebook PCs - Chromebooks from Samsung and Acer running Google's Chrome operating system aimed at web-based applications with little local storage - go on sale in June. However, the rapid rise in popularity of smartphones and tablet PCs has led to speculation that Google will merge the Chrome and Android operating sytems.

Google's Android mobile operating system is gaining ground with an explosion of applications and accelerating adoption. The Android Market for mobile applications is forecast to become the world's biggest mobile content platform by August 2011, according to research by mobile application research firm Distimo.

The Google Android Market has eclipsed the Apple App Store for iPhone in free applications, offering 134,342 free applications, compared with App Store's 121,845 free applications.

According to Distimo, if all application stores maintain their current growth, by August the Android Market will be the largest app store, followed by the Apple App Store for iPhone and iPad, Windows Phone 7 Marketplace, BlackBerry App World and Nokia Ovi Store.

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