[benkant]

Agreed. In some ways the browser actually lowered people's expectations of what "computers" can do.

Perhaps the focus shifted.

When I first saw Wolf3D as a kid I was amazed that the computer could do that. Same when I first used a GIS.

These days when people get "excited" about something like Facebook, it's not because it's a technical achievement. It's something more human. Which perhaps is why I don't get it.

Maybe browser technology is "good enough". Perhaps the point is to be able to get apps out to people as simply as possible. It's just a URL.

Due to the fact I don't feel a point coming on any time soon I'll end here.

[rictic]

I think that your final point has the most explanatory power.

Everyone knows that a sufficiently geeky person can make a computer do magical things.

However, apps (in the general sense) become much more exciting when they gain wide appeal, and the difficult discovery, install, setup, and maintenance experience of earlier approaches were an enormous drag on their wide success.