ChromeOS needs to expose the hardware capabilities of its host machine. That is really the only reason for native apps these days -- access to camera, accelerometers, various coprocessors, etc. Perhaps that will become viable if NaCl takes off, I don't know.
But speaking as a developer, the ChromeOS development model is much saner than those of its mobile counterparts. iPhone/Android development is antiquated and miserable in comparison. We are stifling ourselves by perpetuating a development model that worked in the 1990's.
That is really the only reason for native apps these days -- access to camera, accelerometers, various coprocessors, etc
Or the CPU running at its full potential rather than interpreting Javascript, or storage that doesn't have 100+ millisecond network latency, or UI frameworks that were designed for applications rather than text documents...
The web is great for lots of things. The insistence that it should be the One True Way for applications strikes me as a case of man-with-a-hammer syndrome.
But poll any dev and ask which is more pleasant to write UI-heavy apps in: web tools, or Java? The forced decoupling of the presentation (HTML) from the styling (CSS) and application logic (JavaScript) is really a nice way of doing things.
I don't think this is man-with-a-hammer syndrome, merely that the approach to building web apps translates well for 90% of native apps. For everything else, there's a FFI or NDK.
The major failing of ChromeOS, in my opinion, is that it needs an internet connection to work. (WebOS, for example, does not). The closest analog to "local" apps are browser extensions, and that is still a reasonable approach; the capabilities of such just need to be expanded a little. HTML5-style offline functionality is another option.
FWIW, most of my work is done in C these days. Different tools for different tasks.
And my point still stands. The majority of apps are either front ends to web services, or can be constructed using a similar approach that we use for the web today. They are UI-heavy. I did say you should be able to drop to native code if you really need the power.
But speaking as a developer, the ChromeOS development model is much saner than those of its mobile counterparts. iPhone/Android development is antiquated and miserable in comparison. We are stifling ourselves by perpetuating a development model that worked in the 1990's.
Wherefore art thou, WebOS? You need a champion.