I don't know. I don't see a big difference between where Sun, and their key products, sits now, and where IBM was with the mainframe in the late 80s - early 90s. IBM's mainframe was/is proprietary HW running proprietary SW...an expensive proposition both ways. Sun's key product is their version of big iron running Solaris... Proprietary HW and SW again, and expensive. They don't make any money from Java or Jini, the thin client is nowhere, and that majc chip will go nowhere in the PC-WS-Server market. So, if IBM's mainframe has become a no revenue growth (still MIPS growth), and IBM had to re-invent themselves with SW, services and selling technology, what's Sun going to do. Hey, I wish no ill will of Sun, or any other HW company...a Silicon Valley computer type would be foolish to do that. But, I don't see how Sun doesn't become odd man out when the Intel 64 bit hardware gets up to matching Sun's.
Tony |
