"And Pichai killed a project to develop a version of Android for touchscreen laptops—it overlapped with Chromebooks—shifting attention toward tablets and new categories such as smart TVs and wearable computers."
Thanks. The reasoning wasn't terribly sound. (Android and Chrome OS overlap regardless of the target hardware).
But from a branding perspective it makes sense to distance a immature product from a widely popular product. (Obviously that wasn't the idea though since Android Auto, Android TV, Android Wear)
I can also see why they wouldn't want to kill off Chrome OS since it allows them to experiment with a diverging set of strengths and features that Android might not be conducive toward. Those strengths could be leveraged in their other products especially Android.
The biggest problem, IMHO, is that Windows is now leading the charge for a converged OS. Ubuntu is talking it too. OS X and iOS are getting better interconnected in recent versions. Chrome OS's Android app port thing kinda indicates Google knows it's the future.
Soon it's going to be an expectation that your apps are available on someone's desktop and their phone. Google shot themselves in the foot here.
"And Pichai killed a project to develop a version of Android for touchscreen laptops—it overlapped with Chromebooks—shifting attention toward tablets and new categories such as smart TVs and wearable computers."