Google’s earned itself a bit of a reputation for getting started with big projects but then taking forever to see them through to a finished state. You need look no further than Gmail, which despite first entering testing in 2004, didn’t abandon its “beta” tag for another five years. It seems that Google has found new motivation to get projects out of beta since that time; Chrome for Android had its first beta release less than three months ago, and Google is reportedly nearly prepared to strike down this “beta” label, as well.
Sundar Pichai, Google’s Senior Vice President of Chrome and Apps explained to CNET that the company is aiming to get Chrome for Android out of beta in just a few weeks. He wasn’t more specific on a timeframe than that, but it’s probably safe to say we’ll see it arrive before the end of spring.
From the sound of things, we probably shouldn’t expect much in the way of new features before Chrome leaves beta. So far, we’ve seen Google release several updates for the browser, adding things like a desktop mode. For now, though, Pichai says that the goal is on eliminating extant bugs and working on improving app stability.
Once a stable non-beta release of Chrome for Android is available, we’d expect Pichai and his team to return their attention to adding new features and fleshing-out the Chrome experience.
