Chrome OS destined to die?

Paul Buchheit, the creator of Gmail has stated that Google’s new Chrome OS isn’t going to last very long and predicted that it will be killed off by Google themselves sometime next year. What harsh words to say from an ex-Google employee, but given that he was the driving force behind Google’s Gmail and AdSense, he might have a point. His reasoning behind his statement is that Chrome OS and Android are too similar and there is nothing that Chrome can do and Android can’t, and Android already has the upper hand by being one of the world’s most popular operating systems. It is understood that Google are marketing Chrome OS to a different target (netbook/budget-laptop users) – but with analyst predictions of tablets killing off those markets, and Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) optimized to work on tablets, it already has more going for it. Unless Google does something totally revolutionary to Chrome OS and differentiates it from Android, it looks like Paul Buchheit’s words might ring true. Do you think Chrome OS is necessary, or should Google just focus on Android instead?