Will Android finally replace my iPad? ChromeOS integration thoughts

A recent source suggested that Google will be merging ChromeOS with Android. While ChromeOS, particularly on affordable laptops, has been seeing respectable adoption, especially in the education market, Android itself is globally crushing the smartphone market. There's one problem, though – tablets.

So this is a great move in an effort to better compete with the iPad in particular. And as a professional iPad user for over a decade, I think it's one of the best ideas Google's had in years. Let's talk about it.

As a professional iPad user, here's why I believe merging ChromeOS with Android would serve a massive blow to the iPad

So according to the aforementioned source, future "Chromebooks" might actually ship with Android OS, so the name Chromebook, along with ChromeOS, could be going obsolete. Not important. What is important is how that merger between ChromeOS and Android would indeed make Android tablets far, far more empowering to professional users than iPads are right now.

See, I use an iPad with Apple's Magic Keyboard and trackpad, plus an Apple Pencil. Technically – it's an extremely versatile tablet-slash-laptop. iPadOS, while still a mobile platform like Android, has a ton of exclusive, powerful, professional apps, such as Procreate, Final Cut Pro for iPad, and Logic Pro for iPad.

And the iPad has Center Stage, which is its "desktop mode" of sorts. Problem is – it's not good. It's far more clunky than window management is on a Windows laptop or even Samsung Dex. Even worse – the iPad's Safari internet browser, while looking like a "real" desktop browser, is still a mobile one.

The iPad may look like a laptop but it's not, while an Android OS tablet might actually pull it off

As mentioned in my recent "the iPad is still not a computer" editorial, the iPad's Safari web browser still struggles to load a large portion of desktop websites correctly, and some of the more specific ones (e.g. banking, backends) are straight up unusable, as they were not designed with mobile web browsers in mind.

Meanwhile the merger between ChromeOS and Android would bring the "real", full Chrome web browser to Android tablets. This is a huge deal.

It means countless professional users who rely exclusively on web apps would instantly find this new Android platform far more suitable than the iPad. Including myself.

Suddenly it would be so easy to switch from a Windows or MacOS PC to an Android tablet… Let alone switch from an iPad to Android. That latter one would be particularly enticing.

Android really needed this, only Samsung is taking it seriously when it comes to empowering professional users

Hats off to Samsung. Whether I'm using my Galaxy Z Fold 5 phone, or a (non-budget) Samsung tablet – I have the Samsung DeX feature on board.

And Samsung DeX is amazing, and criminally underrated. It's something Google should've been trying to replicate, improve, and make available to all Android users, on all Android phones and tablets.

Samsung DeX is an Android "desktop mode" that actually, truly feels like one. If you're using your tablet with a keyboard and trackpad, like a lot of iPad professionals use theirs, you get full window management, you can resize app windows to your heart's content, quickly snap them to screen corners, you get a taskbar, a traditional mouse cursor, everything the iPad's "desktop mode" lacks.

Only problem is – Android too does not have a true desktop web browser. But it will, evidently, after this merger with ChromeOS happens – and that one thing in particular would really make it a big step above the iPad.

An Android tablet will be able to serve as a full desktop laptop replacement if its user wants it to, so long as that user relies on web apps, as many do. And I'll be the first to try it out.

Imagine the Android laptops, Android tablets, and foldable Android phones… they'll have it all

Android will have an even more massive lead ahead of Apple's offerings if this ChromeOS + Android merger also applies to smartphones, not just Android tablets.

Picture folding phones – how something in your pocket, your phone, could unfold and become a real desktop PC replacement on the go, with a true Chrome web browser.

And picture traditional Android phones that you would be able to go to the office with, plug into a monitor and get something like Samsung DeX, but even more powerful, because, again – true desktop Chrome browser on deck.

I would love to have the real Chrome web browser on my Galaxy Z Fold 5 right now! I've tried many weird hacks to get the real thing on my phone, including Windows emulation, but nothing would work as well as Google simply giving it to us itself. Simply merging ChromeOS with Android.

Your thoughts on ChromeOS merging with Android, and the effects that'll have on the iPad?

Tablet users – whether you use Android or iPad – share your thoughts with your fellow tech enthusiasts in the comments section below!

Are you excited for Android's potential to become a far closer true desktop replacement?

Would Apple respond by bringing a desktop Safari web browser to the iPad? And would you then switch from your iPad to an Android tablet, perhaps a Samsung Galaxy Tab?

I sure would be tempted.

For now, it's all just a report coming from a Google insider claiming that's what's happening, but it makes perfect sense, and it's about time Google took Android to the next level. But again – what are your thoughts?