First of all, most of that competition with Windows stuff seems to be from comentators on Google's release. Has Google themselves actually said anything of that sort?
Secondly, since they're basing it off the Linux kernel, and just adding their own user interface, well, isn't this just yet another distribution of Linux? How is this any different really? It's not exactly a "new" OS if it's just using the Linux kernel. Seems like a lot of hype over nothing particularly new.
Of course, I suppose the focus on reducing startup time is nice. That's always something that kind of bothered me. Still though, the OS goals seem somewhat limited, and I use my computer for a lot more than web browsing. I can see this being useful in markets for smaller devices, but it's not really something that interests me much. I prefer desktops over laptops, and don't even talk to me about "crack-berries", PDAs, or cell phones.
As for the PC market, I suppose the one thing that might change things over other Linux distributions, is it has Google's name behind it. I suppose they have the money and marketing experience to actually get people's attention and push something out there.