Ryan Haines / Android Authority
The Android side of the internet is abuzz with rumors around Google’s Aluminum OS, which is expected to replace ChromeOS on low-power laptops. That sounds like an incredible idea since Google hasn’t had its own real computer software in forever — no, ChromeOS doesn’t count for real work — and has relied on Windows (and now even Mac) for interoperability between Android phones/tablets and other platforms.
When Google is putting in so much effort to make Android apps interoperable — from letting you play Android games on Windows to making Pixel 10s work with Apple AirDrop (you know, the existing desktop ecosystem) — isn’t this the better direction to put your energy into instead of creating a new OS from scratch?
What should Google focus on? 26 votes Aluminum OS 42 % Android-Windows integration 23 % Android-Mac integration 12 % App scaling on big screens 23 %
It’s all about habit
Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
A lot of us may be excited to see Aluminum OS turn into reality. We sure do want to go with the hype trend, but how many of us are actually going to buy one? Rabbit R1 and Humane’s AI pin were both real hype machines, but they didn’t find any takers. The thing is, they were so novel that they couldn’t break the habit. Habit is a terribly hard thing to break people out of, something they have known and lived with for years.
Windows and macOS are the two dominant players, with Linux also finding its niche audience. ChromeOS, on the other hand, mostly falls under the ‘others’ category with under 2% market share. ChromeOS may be great for simpler productivity apps, sure, but for any serious business, Windows is the fair game, with Mac focused on the more creative audience. A big enterprise isn’t going to wake up one day and get its IT department to switch hundreds or thousands of its devices from Windows to Aluminum OS just because Google launched a new OS. That ain’t happening, brother — that’s not how enterprises work.
To its credit, Google did a smart thing with habit-building by making Chromebooks a staple notebook for school-goers, setting the foundation and encoding the familiarity so deeply that they’d grow up to ask for Chromebooks, making its biggest dent in the US. Sadly, that big impact is still just 4% of the US market share. So, when people aren’t already using ChromeOS, would Aluminum OS be compelling enough to switch?
What Android apps?
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