If you judge the user base or commercial success it's pretty easy to pass judgment and say it failed. I can't even buy one on amazon.de!

If you assume ChromeOS will be maintained for years to come by Google (because they can afford it) and it will be improved then it might have a chance of becoming something big.

So the only reason you say it's 'early' is because you assume Google will keep it alive long enough to have a fighting chance.