I hope Sun's management doesn't share your complacency.
This Compaq announcement is nothing to sneeze at. Sun's sales have grown tremendously. But in terms of new products for the last couple of years, they have almost stood still as both Compaq and IBM have had time to begin to reorganize themselves out of the holes that they dug themselves into.
And now, we see that competitive flavors of Unix, not NT, may be the issue after all. Did Sun management piss away valuable time and focus flying to Washington to testify against M$, vogueing on Java and Jini, and working lawyers to craft "openish" source licenses, the equivalent of the hare taking a snooze, while IBM and Compaq, two companies that had literally nearly self-destructed, had time to absorb acquisitions, heal, and get back in the game?
I hope not but that's what I fear. You can call me a nervous nellie, and maybe I am. Maybe "those guys" know better than I do when to release these new products. Maybe it will play out that Sun comes out with beautiful launches of hot new products that steal the thunder of Compaq and IBM at just the right time. I fervently hope so.
But from my point of view, the time to launch the new product line was yesterday.
--QS |
