Seems someone at Google zigged when they should have zagged!
News of Chrome OS merging with Android made quite a stir on the web but it now looks like the reports were a bit premature as Google is clarifying their plans.
There was lots of speculation about what this would mean for existing Chromebox users. Since Google showed off their Chrome OS and Chromebox solutions at DSE 2015, we’ve seen a lot of interest for the platform with several well established digital signage vendors announcing their support. Well it now looks like there’s more to it than simply merging both platforms into a single OS. The latest news out of the Googleplex points to a different approach where the traditional Chrome OS will stay around and become more compatible with apps developed for Android. This would make a lot of sense since Android has a lot more apps to offer. Making all these apps available for Chrome OS users would be a big boost for the platform. If this rumor is true, Google OS might become a much more interesting platform for digital signage vendors because there are already a lot of Android digital signage apps out there.
In the long term we may see Android become totally focused on mobile while Chrome OS takes back some of the traditional commercial business. This could mean more digital signage vendors selling Android digital signage apps to folks deploying on Chromeboxes and other Chrome OS devices.
It’s still a big win for digital signage users.