Prediction: The browser as a dominant computing platform

This one is rocket science either, but I expect the next decade, ok, even the next two decades, will see the Internet/Web/Browser become a more and more dominant computing platform.

Part of this power will come from the "cloud", but part of it will come from browsers that allow powerful programming languages to be used to develop in-browser software that rivals desktop software for richness. Quite likely the distinction between these in-browser applications and desktop applications will become increasingly blurred. Want to use a word processor, spreadsheet, graphics program? Easy. Regardless of OS, fire up the program via the web without sacrificing much if any functionality, and have all of your data available to you via the cloud.

Google Chrome is starting to drive this process by introducing what I consider to be revolutionary JavaScript performance. But this is just the first step: Ultimately, the browser needs to allow a truly powerful language like C# to run at near-native speeds, and to be able to interact with the browser page in ways much simpler/richer than happens today.

Once this really comes to fruition, it will make our software so much easier to update, like it is today using a web app, but without sacrificing functionality, and our data will be anywhere and everywhere. What a great computing platform.