“HTML5 is not the only draft standard or proposal around for the future of web markup, but if it will be successful in becoming the main specification then it might mean that torch has been passed on from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG). In that context, it’s worth noting that not only Mark Pilgrim, but also the editor of community-feedback-powered HTML5, Ian Hickson, work at Google – quite a bit of leverage for the browser/ OS/ phone/ search maker, or what do you think?” - × × ×

I feel it's time to say, that it is successful. It was questionable 3 years ago, but not now. All major browser vendors (including microsoft) implement pieces of html5 now - indeyets