Chrome hits iPad, iPhone

Google today announced its Chrome web browser will be available on Apple's iPad and iPhone devices.

The web giant broke the news at its I/O developer conference in San Francisco. The web browser will run as an application and will not supplant Apple’s Safari as the device’s primary web browser.

It will be available for iOS 4.3 and higher from today, reports The Verge.

The Chrome for iOS app shares an interface with its recently released Android sister, and both include the ability to sync tabs and browsing history between a desktop and smartphone when logged in to Google Chrome on both.

The company said Chrome currently has 310 million active users compared to 160 million a year ago. The browser was first released in 2008.

The announcement is the latest in a flurry of news reports from Google's annual developer conference.

The company officially entered the tablet space this week after much speculation with the launch of its Nexus 7 tablet PC, a 7-inch device co-manufactured by Asus and positioned as one of the biggest challengers to Amazon’s Kindle Fire.

It also unveiled the latest update to its Android mobile operating system, 4.1 "Jelly Bean".

Google has a fraught history with Apple and its products, most recently after the iDevice giant ousted Google's Maps as its default global mapping application on iOS 6.

Google this week confirmed it would return its Maps service as an application to Apple's mobile products.