However, the most interesting sentence for me was "In fact, compared to the level of support and tooling you get from XCode on the Apple side or the various pieces of Android IDE-ware, HTML5 development is a major pain in the ass.".
This is exactly my experience, too, and it's why i find it sad to see that Air won't be supported on the iPad. Basically developers have the choice between developing for HTML5 and target a lot of platforms, which is a pain in the ass nowadays even if you are only targeting Desktops. The other choice is to develop almost painlessly but only target one platform and having to duplicate work for every platform. Air is for developing for every platform with presumably less pain then HTML. It's a way with its own drawbacks but also with benefits. Developers (and in the end also users and the market) should be able to decide what is the best for them on their own.
Nevertheless, i really hope that the situation with HTML will resolve in the near future, but it will certainly not this year.
Also, i am wondering, why we don't start targeting specific browsers.. i mean, of course i know. Because websites have to run on every browser, yes yes. But: We install Flash to have Flash Apps, we install the Java VM for Java, .Net, Silverlight, a pdf reader to look at documents. Why don't websites say "The website was developed and tested for browser XXX. Please download browser XXX _here_ or continue on your own risk". Websites are developed for the least common denominator of a big variety of browsers which will only lead us to where we are now, although so much more could be possible.. Chrome has the option to add a website as programm link to your operating system. Taking this thought further, i could imagine to have Gmail as a full fledged replacement for Outlook/Thunderbird in my start menu, with all the latest and greatest that HTML5/Chrome has to offer. Gmail (or some other mail service) could provide a nearly 1:1 copy of a desktop mail client. Offline Storage, Web Notifications, Drag-n-Drop between browser and filesystem, etc. It's all there. And none of it will be used until every browser supports every feature :(
People will call me crazy now and this will most probably never happen, i know, but why not dream? ;)