Ask HN: Are Chrome apps a viable alternative to “native” desktop Mac/PC apps?

With Chrome being a predominant browser on both desktop OSes, is writing a chrome app a viable alternative to writing native desktop apps for each OS? We are building an image management tool, - think Google Picasa on steroids. But instead of writing windows & mac native apps, we plan to write a chrome app. Could the HN hive-mind share lessons learned? and any gotchas to look out for?