Non web apps with Apollo

After reading a comment recently about the number of windows application developers who will jump on the RIA bandwagon with the introduction of WPF, I got to wondering if the argument stands the other way round. The initial comment was along the lines of "Windows application devs don't understand that web apps are different..." which, is a pretty weak argument really but that isn't the point of this post.

My query is whether or not with the introduction of Apollo, will this promote the creation of many non-web applications built using web technologies? The web developer audience who are familiar with flash/flex and/or HTML & AJAX is vast to say the least. Will the opportunity to leverage these skills on the desktop see a rise in non-web specific applications being developed using web technolgoies.

It just so happens that an absolutely ideal case in point example arose on the blogosphere today: fauxto.com is a photoshop like graphics tool created entirely in Flex, currently this is an online tool, but I'm sure I'm not the only person who saw how well suited to Apollo this would be. Ryan Stewart has also made callings of a similar nature (this guy seems to be on my wavelength with every Apollo thought I have - which is hopefully a good thing considering his profile in the dev community).

During Mike Chambers' presentation at FOTB his exact words (or very similar) were "Apollo isn't for creating the next version of photoshop... I'm sure someone will, but that's not where we're aiming". Well it appears someone has done that already and I wonder what other non-web related apps will come about despite that not being Adobe's focus with Apollo.

I'll save the argument on desktop app developers vs internet app developers for another post ;).