The first thing I asked myself when I started with Android was where is Chrome? I'm sure plenty of you asked yourselves the same question, or like me, just shrugged it off assuming the underlying core of the stock browser really was Chrome. The truth of the matter was Android and Chrome were separate teams entirely with really no interaction between the two. It seems Google now has a build target revision up meaning an actual Chrome browser for Android should be right around the corner. There's mention on the Chromium revision log that Chrome for Android will include a lot of the features that you're accustomed to on the desktop version. It will also have support for the open source Skia 2D graphics library. It's unknown exactly how Google plans to position Chrome for Android and I wonder to what extent, if any, they will allow the desktop version to communicate with the mobile and if Chrome extensions will exist on mobile. Maybe the Nexus Prime will give us a taste of Chrome with ICS at the Unpacked event in Oct. Wishful thinking I know, but in either case we should be seeing some Chrome on Android love very soon. Hit us up with your thoughts right down there in the comments. How do you think Google will implement Chrome to Android and will it crush the current stock browser?
[via androidandme]
Chrome on Android is a great idea infact Chrome should replace and remove the stock browser altogether it shouldn’t be a app downloadable from market if that’s what they’re planning
I would certainly welcome Chrome on my phone (Motorola Atrix) and especially on my tablet (Acer Iconia). I hate that the default browser doesn’t automatically render pages in desktop mode and offers not setting that makes that happen. Because of that, I’m using the Maxthon browser, but I’d certainly welcome the Chrome browser and would be happy to use it on my tablet and my laptop if I could share settings like favorites, add-ons, etc..
I am glad its finally coming. Chrome is the best browser out there and will help android continue to win the phone wars. Now only if steve jobs and apple would just spontaneously combust…
foot in mouth after a few months huh? lol.
I hope so!
Thanks for your article. I agree and also hope the Chrome browser for Android is released – and soon. When Android was first announced, there should have been a Chrome browser to go with it. That this didn’t happen is a major miss and has helped to perpetutate the sense of fragmentation that people rightfully complain about regarding Android.
Say what you will about Apple – they have mastered the concept of “ecosystem.” When you buy an Apple device, be it ipod, ipad, or computer, it comes with those things you need to immediately start having fun with the device. You can manage your music, podcasts and videos with iTunes (some may not like it, but at least there is something to start with). You can hit the web with the Safari browser, and you can download free apps from the App Store section of iTunes to get started.
With Android, there is no native browser. The Android Market started out rather sparsely and was an organizational mess (it has greatly improved, but there is still room for improving flow between the Android Market app and the web interface). There was no native music manager until Google Music and that happened more than a year after Android was released. A native browser, music/video/podcast manager as well as an app store should have been part and parcel of the Android ecosystem at the time it was released, not months or years later.
This is doubly true for the Android Honeycomb tablet software. Honeycomb should never have been released in its 3.0 state. It was glitchy and buggy and poisoned the well for non-techy tablet shoppers who heard that Android was a mess. Those people heard that the iPad had a great tablet ecosystem and was a joy to use out of the box. Tablets are luxury items. If they don’t present ease-of-use and an obvious, justifiable reason for purchase, then potential sales are lost. Yes, a number of improvements were made with Honeycomb 3.01 and especially 3.1, but by then it was too late as Apple had already run away with the market.
Even today, I would like to manage my photos on my Asus Transformer tablet and seamlessly upload to Picasa. There is no native app for that. Instead, I need to use a 3rd party workaround (Picasa Tools) for photo management. To me, that just doesn’t make sense. There should have been a Picasa for Android that was compatible with Honeycomb at the time that Honeycomb was released. It’s just one more area where I should be having fun with my tablet. Instead, I have to use some potentially confusing workaround or just go to my laptop – which means I don’t need my Android tablet.
Note to Author: Halfway through your first paragraph when you mention “…features [your] (sic) accustomed to…”, [your] should be “you’re.” It is the contraction that represents “you are,” not “your” which is a possessive pronoun. It is really annoying to see professional writers making basic grammatical mistakes like this (over and over again). That said, I agree with the overall point of your article, but basic grammar mistakes detract from your credibility.
Thank you for pointing that out. I understand and appreciate your annoyance, but the reason you see this time and time again from “professional” writers on these blog sites is that we are human like everyone else and will make mistakes. Sometimes it can be hard to be perfect while rushing up the news for you all to enjoy especially when that news is late on the weekends.
I’m not big on the desktop/mobile communication. I don’t need it. Good feature tho. Anyway. I hope they let Gingerbread get it. Honeycomb will be first prolly but I hope its a direct release from Google but a port is sure to follow. @smurf_god
Google Chrome has a built in bookmark sync with Google which syncs you bookmarks to your Google account hence that would be the way of syncing.
As far as i am concerned this will be a great undertaking.
Native Chrome bookmark sync plssss