How does the RIA technology landscape change over the next 5 years? This is an extremely interesting question, one that deserves more time and thought than an hour phone call. We are going to try and move toward this question from numerous diverse angles.

• What technology will win? Microsoft’s WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation), AJAX, Adobe’s Flex / Flash, or some other 4th party?
• What evolutions and revolutions on the technology front are coming?
• How will companies influence RIA technologies?

We are always required to make choices and suggestions on Rich Internet Applications platforms all the time. With its possible to authority diverse media formats, rapid development process, existing across multiple platforms and browsers, and the strong support for designers, the flash player is easily 5 years ahead of any other RIA technology. For the last 2 years, the answer for the largest part of our customers is almost always the flash player. Adobe is at top but it does not mean that they will stay there for long time.

Microsoft knows how to compete, and we believe that they are seeing RIAs as a real threat to an important portion of their business. But, in this race to top, consistent will be Microsoft’s limitation. Microsoft is spotlighting WPF primarily on IE, with the hopes that WPFE (Windows Presentation Foundation, will be found everywhere) will establish to gain market-share transversely other non-Microsoft systems.

Now we have reached to AJAX development. Almost every AJAX developer we are talking to now has had major issues with compatibility, performance, scalability, or development times. The issues are primarily based around compatibility. Each OS and Browser has unimportant nuances that make a single code base almost impossible (particularly on large, sophisticated deployments). Many times web developers find themselves coding around browser discrepancy. Microsoft is going to give them a hard run, particularly because Microsoft controls the vast bulk of desktops.

But consistent will be more an issue. We thought the “browser wars” were over, but the race has just started.