AJAX vs. desktop development

"With the growing popularity of AJAX-style interfaces, what was "good enough" has gotten souped up to compete more fully with desktop applications (though not completely…there ARE differences). Web development is already the most popular form of application development. Will AJAX programming techniques further that trend? Maybe, assuming desktop development stood still and didn't try learn from its web competition. Fortunately, standing still isn't in the nature of competition, and desktop application development certainly isn't standing still." Source: blogs.zdnet.com