AOL/SUNW/NSCP.....& Novell
>>Too late to rhyme. Anyone have any opinions about the role Novell might play in the new e-commerce venture between AOL/Netscape and SUNW? The good doc surely must have some pals in high places. Fred/Ida, I thought you might like to ponder this one. BTW, don't go too far. As a fellow old-timer on this board I would miss you.>>
I really believe Steve Case purchased Netscape because he knew AOL's position lacked depth and integrity when it came to pure
technology-related offerings for business to business and individual to business e-commerce.
He's smart enough - no pun - to realize that the basic plumbing of the Internet, as we know it, is going to change - perhaps radically - and he needs some vehicle - perhaps a Humvee - to drive across the vast desert from where he's at to get there.
Remember AOL is just eyeballs at this point - pure content.
Case needs to get those eyeballs to sink mindshare and e-commerce share into some technology app hooks, bells and whistles to remain in the fold. Hence AOL's purchase of ICQ last year. This was a brilliant move, yet there's been no evidence since that he knows what to do with it. The last thing ICQ denizens want to do is be dragged into AOL-space. Perhaps they're planning to integrate ICQ's technology into AOL. That would be a very hard do since AOL's technology is all proprietary for that's where its roots lie. AOL embraced the net reluctantly. They knew the Internet would, over time, bleed eyeball share away from AOL. This is happening right now and from just my experience alone - which I think can be said for millions of others - more and more of my time is spent away from AOL. With the exception of the Novell board and basic email - which I am gradually weening away from AOL - I do not need AOL, period. As time passes this leaves AOL in a position of being a house of cards - the castle in the Wizard of Oz perhaps. I, along with millions of other AOLites first entered the this virtual castle, saw all the fire, smoke and mirrors, retrieved the burnt broom and even met the Wizard himself. The problem is the Wizard is getting old - how many cups of coffee can you have with him without asking "there's no place like home, etc." My balloon's has been waiting outside the castle for the last 2-3 years and the gas supply for the hot air has almost run out.
So Case buys Netscape and hopes that their technology can be integrated or wrapped around the AOL hollow shell. I'm sorry, but this will take a lot of money and will only divert much needed attention away from Case's understanding of this new revolution that's just getting underway - where INDIVIDUALS, not portals, will control more and more of the power.
Novell sees this new vision and is doing all the right things to open up and layer its technologies across ALL the NOS's and enterprises out there, giving them all the same "portal powers" that AOL and others used to claim for themselves.
Eyeballs are eyeballs. The human mind, when given the choice/flexibility/power will always explore new domains, new ideas, new opportunities in the continued quest for improvement, efficiency and growth.
We don't need AOL anymore. It's become our virtual coloring book, but more of us are growing up and seeking other more personal spaces in this virtual world where we can have more of an impact.
As for Sun, they're a box vendor, pure and simple. The good news is that Sun created Java and Jini and they are desparate to claim app space somewhere where they can sink app hooks in verticle markets so they can move "higher" and claim some piece of the goldmine - THE INDIVIDUAL. Sun lacks eyeballs. Netscape has eyeballs, but doesn't know what to do with them.
So the whole AOL/Sun/NSCP gathering is simply three Indian tribes agreeing to meet in some vast virtual valley so they can figure out what to do to secure their current space while preparing for this next revolution.
Meanwhile Novell is already on the mountaintops surrounding this and many other virtual valleys. Sending smoke signals and fire messages, attracking the more adventurous Indians to come and see these new tools and ideas they are unleashing for all INDIVIDUALS to see, for all app developers to sink their teeth into.
Novell has gone "higher" and is not a threat to this gathering. They are in a great position to involve themselves in direct ways that can make AOL, Sun and Netscape more open, more viral, more focused on what really matters - you, me and I.......
Forgive the metaphors, but I thought it would be easier to understand what's happening.
What I do know is that Gate's is the virtual General Custer of our times.
Hope this helps.
Now I will go into my Indian holler while jumping up and down around my desktop.
Bye.
cc: Steve Case, AOL's Novell board, SI's AOL board, SI's MSFT board, one guy inside Novell. |
