I know something for sure and that is Java is not the future of Android. Android will run web apps in future. In makes sense in many different ways:
- Google is a huge pusher of web platform. They want it on mobile.
- They are pushing new APIs to HTML5 everyday to make it more suitable for mobile
- Google is the only one that can make real mobile web apps a reality
- Did you ever see that metal android status in Google campus? They want choromize the Andriod
I really don't understand the attraction of "making the one thing."
Chrome/ChromeOS and Android are very different. Neither is going to supplant the other.
They also have some clashing goals: Chrome wants to be more security paranoid than Android. In theory Google can find Android malware authors, cut them off from access to Google Play, and kill bad apps in the field, while Chrome is exposed to both malevolent and hacked Web sites.
I see harmonization as more of a product management activity than any particular technical choice.