Google Is Launching Play Store On Chromebook

Google has this week announced it will be launching the Google Play app store on Chromebook devices.

The news was announced yesterday by Chrome OS Software Engineers Dylan Reid and Elijah Taylor, who said the high growth in Chromebook sales has driven the company to broaden the functionality of its PC, to allow users to run a wider range of services on the device.

Chromebook users will soon be able to download and use Android apps directly from the Play Store onto their laptop, which will work in the same way as phone and tablet apps and without hindering the device’s speed or security.

The store will be built on top of Chrome OS, giving users access to a host of business and entertainment services on their laptop.

And this is obviously a big opportunity for developers to bring their apps to laptops as well as phones and tablets.

Speaking about the update, Reid and Taylor said in a blog post: “Chromebooks have always been about making computing more accessible for everyone, and by bringing together the best of Android and Chrome OS, we are taking a big leap forward.

“Not only are we addressing many of the existing needs and use cases that people have for their Chromebooks, we are also betting on the millions of developers who are innovating every day to build the next great experience that wasn’t even possible on PC platforms before.”

Google will begin rolling the store out in the developer channel with M53 on the ASUS Chromebook Flip, the Acer Chromebook R 11 and Chromebook Pixel, and will eventually become available to other Chromebooks.

Over the next few months, Google will be updating a list of supported Chromebooks, which can be viewed here.

Find out more here.