The recent announcement by Adobe to spend $100 million in venture funding to promote it's next generation Apollo platform is not insignificant, as it relates heavily to the future of business web applications, such as Salesforce.com.

The history of business application development has always pursued a fine balance between application "reach", which is how many users can access the app, and application "rich", which is creating applications that address human factors to improve adoption and usability.

Clearly, the Internet has become the defacto means to "reach" end users, but there is a battle waging to determine how best to deliver "rich" user interfaces.

As you can see from the matrix below, Apollo (or something like it) is poised to fulfill the richness that is lacking in Web applications today, such as disconnected access to local files, keyboard shortcuts, and resident application processes.

Also competing for the Web 3.0 quadrant is Microsoft Vista (and Live) with plans to extend their already rich applications with Internet connectivity and collaboration.

Customer and Partner portals will clearly err on the side of maximum reach and utilize open web standards that are capable of delivering the richest possible user experience to the largest possible audience. Employee facing applications and portals are less constrained by a browser-only requirement.