Bangalore March 15 2013:   Chennai-born, IIT Kharagpur alumnus Sundar Pichai   will assume charge of Google’s Android software business in addition to the Chrome Operating  System and browser which are his current responsibility, says a blog  by the company’s CEO Larry Page.

This  is seen by industry watchers to point to a merger in coming months  between the ecosystem of Android apps – already the   biggest in the mobile arena –with   the Chrome  computing environment.

Writes Larry: “….Android is the most used mobile operating system in the world: we have a global partnership of over 60 manufacturers; more than 750 million devices have been activated globally; and 25 billion apps have now been downloaded from Google Play… Going forward, Sundar Pichai will lead Android, in addition to his existing work with Chrome and Apps. Sundar has a talent for creating products that are technically excellent yet easy to use—and he loves a big bet. Today Chrome has hundreds of millions of happy users and is growing fast thanks to its speed, simplicity and security… I know Sundar will do a tremendous job doubling down on Android as we work to push the ecosystem forward”.

Sundar joined Google in 2004 as vice president of product management, and became senior vice president of Google Chrome and Apps in 2011. He  takes over Android from Andy Rubin who brought the product to Google when his company was acquired in 2005.  Andy is to continue  at Google with new responsibilities, as yet unspecified.