I'm curious what "features" are in Adobe AIR that makes it unique from browsers. I've heard that it has SQLlite on board, but what else makes it any different from Chrome's application mode (get the same functionality using Firefox's Prism plugin)
Is it fair to call it a browser?
AIR is technically a runtime much like Prism, and Silverlight (dunno about Chrome) for RIAs. They try to bridge the gap between the desktop applications and the browser. Browsers typically do not have disk access.
I'd suggest you go through this link.
Adobe Air is sort of like having a web application run on your desktop as if it was a windows/mac application. It is the answer from Adobe to Microsoft Silverlight out of browser experience. There are some technical differences; for one you need to install a seperate piece of software before you can use it while the Silverlight one comes with the Silverlight runtime. Another difference is applications running on Adobe Air have much higher permissions on your system than Silverlight ones.