I was surprised when I heard the announcement that Sun was getting into the Rich Internet Application (RIA) Platform business. But they are, with an offering called JavaFX. I've dropped a couple of posts comparing Silverlight with Flash, but clearly I need to go to work and start looking at JavaFX. There's still a good chance, in my opinion, that either or both of Apple and Google get into this space as well - but beyond those 5 (Adobe, Microsoft, Sun, Apple, Google), I don't see any other competitors on the horizon. And so, what once looked like a market locked up by Adobe is suddenly wide open.
A good intro to JavaFX is provided here, by Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz.
I'm still tucking into JavaFX. Look for more content over the next week or so here.