Sun Revs Up Java
Sun
used this year’s JavaOne conference (June 10-13, San Francisco) as
an occasion to focus attention on its stewardship of Java and to
announce plans to heavily emphasize this focus in the coming year in
its advertising, promotions, and via partnerships, alliances, and
announcements.
One
could, therefore, think of these late-June events as a kind of
follow-up to that Java gauntlet, flung down amid the JavaOne
festivities.
Sun Acquires Pixo Software
Sun
is acquiring Pixo, a privately held San Jose-based software company
Pixo’s software permits network operators with Java technology-based
server software to manage the secure distribution and monetization
of digital content for end users' mobile devices. Sun is hoping that
means they would be in a good position to take advantage of the
increasing move to make nearly anything available on increasingly
agile mobile phones with Internet access – at a price – and take
a leadership role in both digital rights and content management,
hotly contested areas which other big vendors – IBM and Microsoft
to name two – also eye.
This
is a bet on Java Card Subscriber Identity as well as the Java server
platform, according to Sun’s Vice president of Software Jonathan
Schwartz. But we would
note that the way here is less clear.
USB keys are beginning to compete strongly with Smart Cards
for user identification, with the advantage that they require no
extra hardware (card readers).
And a number of the consumer device vendors seem headed down
the Linux road (see our Linux article in this issue).
Only time, of course, will tell.
Pixo's
server software enables network operators and enterprises to
centrally manage content, customize multiple subscriber interfaces
and allow rapid downloads of secure digital content, including Java
applications. It will also provide a consolidated platform to add,
manage, market, download and bill for all types of wireless content
regardless of where that content is physically located, as an
automated process, with lowered costs, and increased revenue
possibilities.
Pixo is
expected to make implementation and usability simpler and cheaper
not just for xSPs, but also for corporations and for end-users.
The network will be able to detect what the users of devices
have and might need and users will be able to make secure payment
transactions more easily.
Java
On The Desktop
Sun
both won and lost on this one.
The courts ruled that Microsoft no longer had to distribute a
Java runtime with Windows since Java seemed to be able to distribute
itself quite handily. On
the other hand, the court did rule that Microsoft could not
distribute any version of Java except the official Sun version
(Microsoft, for a while, distributed a revised version which Sun
protested would interfere with their goal of making any Java program
run on any Java Virtual Machine.)
Sun is still pursuing its antitrust suit against Microsoft,
suing for damages caused by its excluding Java from its mainstream
(Sun would say monopoly) platform.
There
was more good news for Sun. That
pesky little hybrid distribution Lindows (Linux with the ability to
access and run a few Windows programs, most notably the Office
Suite), has agreed to ship Java with Lindows.
That’s powerful because Lindows may be going to the
consumer market since it’s sold through WalMart’s on-line store.
(We hear rumors that a lot of these very low-cost machines,
pre-loaded with Lindows, are actually going to small businesses and
schools, but it’s only a rumor.)
And
at JavaOne, several significant PC OEM’s, Dell and HP, agreed to
include Java on their PC’s and laptops, starting sometime later
this year. This means
that, effectively, most PC customers will get Java pre-loaded
regardless of what Microsoft is doing since HP and Dell together
represent much of the PC market. The rest of us, if our OEM isn’t so inclined have options,
too. Large buyers can
have anything they want loaded on their systems; small ones can
always go the download route.
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