I have noticed recently a massive drive by large and small companies towards supporting HTML 5 for writing applications. Most notable are Windows 8 applications, which can be written in HTML 5 + Javascript, C# + XAML, or VB.NET + XAML. Microsoft has traditionally created their own alternative languages for developing applications: Silverlight in response to Flash, C# in response to Java. I forsee two current outcomes in this initiative: Windows 8 applications do not become popular because HTML 5 is not powerful enough, or HTML 5 becomes the de facto standard for application development.
Other products have already started expanding on the HTML 5 direction. PhoneGap and AppMobi allow cross-platform development using HTML 5 + Javascript running on iOS, Android, etc; and early-stage startup StackMob is producing cloud-based services for HTML 5 applications.