As is the tradition for a few years now, Kevin McGlaughlin of ChannelWeb contacted me in December asking for my "Microsoft" predictions for 2009. You can see my comments on Rich Internet Applications and some other really interesting comments in his article here:
http://www.crn.com/it-channel/212201200;jsessionid=KFY313DQZEDBSQSNDLPSKHSCJUNN2JVN?pgno=3
Here is the un-edited content i sent over to Kevin on my predictions for 2009:
I have been making the same prediction since 2004…and every year we get closer, but not totally there. And I have made some really bad predictions over the last 25 years in this business. So, it is with a careful and skeptical eye that you should view my predictions for this coming year, 2009. But I believe this coming year we will finally realize the next-generation application: the smart client, Rich Client, RIA or whatever marketing term we apply to it. I believe developers and architects alike will realize that the way an application is surfaced, through its UI design is part of the application architecture. An architect must consider the best ways to surface an application depending on the needs of the users of the application. As developers and architects, we have been so jaded by impotent browser-based applications for the past many years (for many legitimate reasons) that we tend to not even consider surfacing an app in any way other than on a browser. Microsoft Silverlight, WPF and Microsoft Surface are going to push us over the edge into the “Smart Client Revolution”. And that is a world I want to live in.