On Thursday, the second day of its annual I/O Conference in San Francisco, Internet search giant Google made a somewhat unexpected announcement about the release of Chrome for iOS, while announcing the stable version of Chrome for Android.

Google's release of Chrome software for Apple's iPhone and iPad, which have Safari online surfing programs at their core, underscores that the Internet search company's strategic move to take the web browser battle to the popular Apple devices.

Despite the fact that Safari continues to be the default browser for Apple devices and the "engine" on which Chrome or other web-surfing applications are dependent, the release of Chrome for iOS is an indication that Google has enhanced the software so as to ensure the syncing of the browser across a wide range of commonly-used Internet-connected devices.

The Thursday proceedings at the conference witnessed Chrome product management director Brian Rakowski demonstrate the new browser programs which are scheduled to be available in Apple's online App Store.

During the demonstration, Rakowski said that people had been "asking to use Chrome on the iPhone," and added that, along with launching Chrome for the iPhone, Google decided to launch the web browser for the iPad also.

However, noting that Chrome for iOS is "obviously not what powers Chrome in Windows and Android," Chrome SVP Sundar Pichai said in an interview at the conference: "I think we were able to get it (Chrome for iOS) working well. We had to make trade-offs."