I think this is very important point that you pointed.

Those AIR, SilverLight or JavaFX are lives between platform and application. (Fact, these are platform.)
But Gears has unique, undiscovered position. It is between “Cloud” and “Any Platform”, Even Gears deployed as “plug-in” of browsers. That’s why Gears can be a “standard”.

When “Internet” became “The New Operating System” (as Mitchelle Baker from Mozilla Foundation told.) something must have “consistent interface”. I wish Gears be something.

Sorry for this messy English.