Great prediction (made back in 2006) of  commercial test automation tools - and it is now true! The prove of this is in another post from the same blog - Do Testers Have to Write Code? which is a great research of current trends for tester skills.

And I totally agree with the following quote from that article:

...record and playback is overrated. It’s fine for creating throwaway scripts, and for creating a first draft script that you then refactor without mercy until it doesn’t even resemble the original recording. But record and playback is not a test automation strategy. It is at best a tool and at worst a crutch. Be wary of record and playback.