Shortly after Apple CEO Steve Jobs posted his screed about Adobe, Flash and iPhone OS devices, Microsoft’s general manager of Internet Explorer has posted his own thoughts, calling HTML5 “the future of the Web.”

Internet Explorer has no direct bearing on the Apple market anymore – Microsoft no longer develops IE for the Mac, but the Web browser maintains a huge presence in the Windows world. So Microsoft general manager Dean Hachamovitch’s comments still carry significant weight, especially as Microsoft seemingly aligns itself with Apple and against Adobe when it comes to Flash as a vehicle for Internet video going forward.

“We think H.264 is an excellent format. In its HTML5 support, IE9 will support playback of H.264 video only,” Hachamovitch added. H.264 is the same video format Apple supports across its product line; it’s a cornerstone of Apple’s QuickTime technology.

Internet Explorer 9, currently in development for Windows Vista and Windows 7, was previewed at a Microsoft developer event earlier this year. The software is not expected to be released in final form until sometime in 2011.

Hachamovitch takes the issue of H.264 licensing on directly – opponents of H.264 note that it’s patented, and that vendors are expected to pay a licensing fee to use the technology. “The rights to other codecs are often less clear, as has been described in the press. Of course, developers can rely on the H.264 codec and hardware acceleration support of the underlying operating system, like Windows 7, without paying any additional royalty,” he said.

Hachamovitch is ultimately conciliatory towards Adobe, noting that Microsoft “works closely with engineers at Adobe” and calling Flash “an important part of delivering a good consumer experience on today’s web.” But Hachamovitch also cautions that Flash “does have some issues, particularly around reliability, security, and performance” – words mirrored in Jobs’ own comments.