I agree with many of your points. It is possible downloadable apps (such as in AIR, Silverlight, or just C/C++ apps built via direct code or cross compiled from a higher level language) will gain more traction that are just web enabled on the desktop (twitter apps for instance). It is nice to access the file system and rendering pipelines (which is needed for mobile apps since they are slower) but this also leads to a fragmented development platform.
I do believe that the ability to type in a URL and browser back and forward was a huge "killer app" feature of browsers. Not to mention the dream of combining media types into a sort of super information system with pages of all types of content.
Like you pointed out though, many of the features of the browser on the desktop seem to parallel those on the great iPhone/touch system and screen that has the same echo of that desire for information and media/games/applications. It is really fast and the updates are fairly simple now on the iPhone so it provides the user much of the same experience that the browser did and does.
I do believe that the ability to type in a URL and browser back and forward was a huge "killer app" feature of browsers. Not to mention the dream of combining media types into a sort of super information system with pages of all types of content.
Like you pointed out though, many of the features of the browser on the desktop seem to parallel those on the great iPhone/touch system and screen that has the same echo of that desire for information and media/games/applications. It is really fast and the updates are fairly simple now on the iPhone so it provides the user much of the same experience that the browser did and does.