( CNN ) -- Android is finally getting Chromed out . Google launched a beta version of Chrome for Android smartphones and tablets Tuesday , delivering a mobile version of the popular desktop web browser after a very long wait . Indeed , both Android and Chrome launched more than three years ago , and users have demanded unification ever since . Why bemoan the long wait ? Much like the company 's other products and services , the new Chrome app hooks wonderfully into the Google universe , giving those immersed in desktop Google apps even more incentive to choose Android as their mobile OS . So , naturally , we would hope — nay , expect — that Chrome would be the default browser for the Android OS . But this has n't been the case . Android users have been forced to use a generic , stock browser ( unceremoniously named `` Browser '' ) that 's inferior to not only Chrome , but also other browsers available in the Android Market . Dolphin , anyone ? Google had a reason to take its time : It wanted to do Chrome for Android right . `` We did n't want to just push out Chrome light , '' said Sundar Pichai , senior vice president of Google Chrome , in an interview . `` Our goal was to get all of Chrome onto Android . '' Which is exactly what Pichai and his team did . It 's a full version of the Chrome browser for Android , still performing as adroitly as ever without losing the features that come in the desktop version . There are clear perks in using Chrome instead of other Android browsers . If you 're already a desktop Chrome user , your bookmarks will be synced across all your browser versions after signing into your Google account . Even cooler , if you 've left pages open on your laptop at home , you can access those same open tabs from your mobile Chrome browser . Search terms you 've entered on your desktop browser also carry over to Chrome for Android , saving precious time and screen tapping . But most important of all , Chrome is fast . Really freaking fast . When typing in an address into the search bar , for instance , Chrome predicts what page you 're going to visit and starts loading it in the browser background . So by the time you 've clicked `` go , '' most of the site has already loaded . To be sure , the Chrome browser itself is nothing new . It 's been around since 2008 , when Google first decided to take on Microsoft , Mozilla and others by casting its lot in the browser wars . The move proved to be a smart one : For nearly the past year and a half , Chrome has slowly increased market share , according to various browser analytics firms ' estimates . In fact , Chrome actually surpassed Firefox , once the most popular alternative to the dominant Internet Explorer ( which still holds about 50 percent of desktop browser share ) . After Tuesday 's debut for Android devices — of which there are more than 700,000 activations daily — Chrome 's adoption numbers will only escalate . But the Chrome release raises a number of questions about the new browser app , and the relationship that the Android and Chrome teams have with one another . When the Chrome team first announced it was creating a Chrome-based operating system — later to be known as Chrome OS — it was difficult to resolve how the software would n't come into conflict with Android . After all , Android is the premier operating system for all things mobile ( smartphones , tablets ) . Except , that is , for Google 's version of the netbook : the Chromebook . So the question is , Which OS owns what ? Is it Chrome for netbooks , and Android for everything else ? Pichai thinks there 's room enough for both operating systems . The Chrome OS , he says , can be seen `` as a different computing paradigm . '' It 's one that , `` end-to-end , is fully based on the web . '' `` Native mobile applications are thriving , but web apps are going to thrive as well , '' Pichai said . While it 's nice to see the two camps playing nicely in Tuesday 's release , it 's not without a caveat . As of Tuesday 's launch , Chrome for Android is only available for smartphones and tablets running Android version 4.0 ( a.k.a . Ice Cream Sandwich ) . At this point , this includes just a handful of phones and tablets . And of course , it 's Chrome `` beta '' for Android , so do n't expect everything to work perfectly . Still , Pichai is confident the Chrome team will drop the `` beta '' title sooner rather than later . `` After announcing Chrome the first time , we took it out of beta in three months , '' Pichai said . `` I 'd expect this to happen here in the near future . '' And as it stands , after Chrome moves out of beta , the plan is for Chrome to take the place of Android 's default browser permanently . If you 've got Ice Cream Sandwich , head to the Android Market to download the app right now . Subscribe to WIRED magazine for less than $ 1 an issue and get a FREE GIFT ! Click here ! Copyright 2011 Wired.com .
Google launches Chrome Web browser for Android devices . Google says it wanted to make sure its browser was right for its operating system . Chrome has already replaced Firefox as the second most-popular browser .