"Native" really isn't that significant. When Android first came out, it's "native" applications were all apps that were written more or less from scratch using the Android APIs. When Android first came out, there were essentially zero apps. "Native" usually isn't raw ARM binaries either, it's in the form of dalvik vm bytecode, optimized not for speed, but for executable size. The only time native is useful is with truly performance critical applications, and the vast majority of apps aren't performance critical. Javascript runtimes are getting faster with each release and the huge amount of competition between browser vendors. Chrome also has Native Client, which would be the equivalent of Android's NDK.
If by "native" you mean the user interface consistency, acknowledging that web apps will be significant pretty much destroys that anyway. Lots of iOS/Android apps don't even use the native UI widgets anyway, so it's not a really worthy goal.
Android started with a huge disadvantage: not having any apps. Yet only a few years later, the platform hundreds of thousands. Chrome and the web as a platform is much more approachable, and for every existing android or iOS app, in a short time, there will be rough equivalents that can be made.
From the start, Chrome has millions. All of them can be accessed with a consistent interface, where there's a single notion of an application. If android takes over, then you'll be constantly switching contexts from the browser and the "native" applications.
This rather assumes that the browser could not be improved upon.
I kind of feel like Tom... Chrome OS is actually what Android will turn into, not the other way around. The downloadable app paradigm is working fine for Apple, but it's been pretty miserable for Google. Their marketplace is pretty atrocious, and the method of selling them has been a constant headache.
I think Chrome OS is a stopgap to an OS where the browser doesn't appear as a bunch of tabs, but as something that probably looks more like iOS anyway. I think it shows Google thinking a little too small and releasing too early. Had it baked a couple of years, and it became branded as Android 4 or something ("Android... everywhere"), I think that would have been better. I wonder if they're not launching early in order to push things like Web Print, so by the time they are ready to do something groundbreaking, the technology is already in place.
If by "native" you mean the user interface consistency, acknowledging that web apps will be significant pretty much destroys that anyway. Lots of iOS/Android apps don't even use the native UI widgets anyway, so it's not a really worthy goal.
Android started with a huge disadvantage: not having any apps. Yet only a few years later, the platform hundreds of thousands. Chrome and the web as a platform is much more approachable, and for every existing android or iOS app, in a short time, there will be rough equivalents that can be made.
From the start, Chrome has millions. All of them can be accessed with a consistent interface, where there's a single notion of an application. If android takes over, then you'll be constantly switching contexts from the browser and the "native" applications.