Given the same base OS (Linux) in Android and ChromeOS and much of the same sorts of things. The redundancy of having two teams is pretty obvious. So if everyone agrees that you're going to do both going forward (and I think this is a ringing endorsement of ChromeOS as a 'long term' bet by Google) it only makes sense to make one team out of them.
Then the question becomes who leads it? The guy who leads ChromeOS or the guy who leads Android? Andy wasn't a big fan of ChromeOS when I was there, I don't know if that changed, his passion was making a better phone experience. I don't think I ever talked to or hear Sundar speak when I was there so I don't know what he thinks about phones.
So Sundar gets the nod and Andy gets to pick his next role (or exit which isn't uncommon in these situations). I don't doubt Andy would be on the short list of a number of CEO search committees so perhaps he'll pop up as the new CEO of Sony or something.
I would imagine it could start by eliminating bionic, which seeems designed primarily to keep hardware OEMs happy that everything is under a weak (BSD style) license.
ChromiumOS uses a standard Linux libc (probably glibc) and is more compatible with commonly available userland software and the newest ARM hardware and ABIs.
The Chromium build system is also more suited to building an OS than a Java application.
I'll assume that Dalvik stays, and that the Android API is supported.
The Android window manager is pretty powerful (actually underutilized on phone form factors, as it supports movable frames and overlap, though that is not apparent from using it. Chrome has it's own window manager, as well as it's own desktop UI.
One question might be what direction Google TV goes in, possible with a more exclusive partner arangement. Does it make sense to build Google TV apps on Android, or should it move to more of a web model using Chrome? (This isn't neccessarily assuming that Google TV survives as it's own product line).
I haven't seen what information has been publically released about Google Glass development, but it's UI could be accomplished equally with Android or Chrome underneath, and eventually it makes sense for them to be webapps.
Another possibility, seemingly out there, would be for Android to move towards a WebOS/FirefoxOS model where core applications are built using HTML and interfacing with exposed libraries, but Android apps would still be first class citizens.
I think this may sound crazy but android's days as a apremium OS are not as secure as they seem. Take Samsung out of the android picture and you will see that there is barely any device maker that is leading charge.
Add to that the pressure brought on by Microsoft which runs almost the same version of OS on its phone and PC. This will allow them to innovate much faster. Google wants to be there. So even though the brand name will stay, Android as n OS will evolve to what is Chrome today. Completely controlled by Google.
Given the same base OS (Linux) in Android and ChromeOS and much of the same sorts of things. The redundancy of having two teams is pretty obvious. So if everyone agrees that you're going to do both going forward (and I think this is a ringing endorsement of ChromeOS as a 'long term' bet by Google) it only makes sense to make one team out of them.
Then the question becomes who leads it? The guy who leads ChromeOS or the guy who leads Android? Andy wasn't a big fan of ChromeOS when I was there, I don't know if that changed, his passion was making a better phone experience. I don't think I ever talked to or hear Sundar speak when I was there so I don't know what he thinks about phones.
So Sundar gets the nod and Andy gets to pick his next role (or exit which isn't uncommon in these situations). I don't doubt Andy would be on the short list of a number of CEO search committees so perhaps he'll pop up as the new CEO of Sony or something.