Updated: Here’s a link to DOM Storage that’s a little bit easier to read compared to the WHATWG one :)
I just finished reading this excellent article by Matthew Gertner of AllPeers that gives people a fair idea on how the applications world might look like in the next 5 years or so.
In retrospect he hit the nail straight on the head but I think he down plays the web app future just a tad because frankly I think that’s the future, since probably none of the big players will come through and get anything widespread enough compared to a web browser without having some serious drawbacks.