Almost identical to iOS? Absolutely ridiculous analogy. ChromeOS doesn't compare to iOS at all and Chrome is far more open than Android in terms of development

Almost identical to iOS? Absolutely ridiculous analogy. ChromeOS doesn't compare to iOS at all and Chrome is far more open than Android in terms of development (All new Chromium development is done in the open and new releases happen nightly and every 6 weeks. Do you know what Android 4.5 will have in it yet?) 1. The majority of iOS apps can't be side loaded, are locked to the App Store. Vast majority of ChromeOS apps are not "Chrome Apps", it's a red herring. Plus, Chrome Apps can still be side loaded and are not locked to the Web Store. None of Google's major apps: GMail, Maps, Docs, YouTube, etc are actually "Chrome Apps" in this regard. Then will run on any ChromeOS fork. Chromium today supports side loading any app from the Extensions page without going through the Chrome Store. Simply put, it is not possible to create the kinds of Google-service lock-in agreements for ChromeOS that have been created for Android, because ChromeOS is just a web browser. 2. ChromeOS doesn't need to add hooks for app delivery contrary to your claims. The Chrome equivalent of an APK is a CRX file and CRX files can be self hosted, see "Hosted Apps". In fact, they used to auto-install if you just clicked a link pointing at one, but phishers/hackers took advantage of this, so now you have to go through the Extensions page. Any Web app you build for Chromium will work on any subsequent ChromeOS fork without needing to make any lower level changes, because Web apps don't have huge dependencies on local OS services. Many ChromeOS apps will even work on Firefox because again, the vast majority of Chrome apps don't really depend on local OS privileges like getting access to the USB port. Implementing a different app distribution mechanism is trivial. In practice, Android apps are far more likely to depend on non-AOSP services (like Google Play Services) than Web Apps are to depend on Chrome Web Store required services (of which there is only a tiny few, like push messaging). That's just the facts, so the practical reality is, forking AOSP creates more incompatibility than forking Chromium.