re: SUNW v. MSFT - Liberty Alliance Project (Nokia)
>> Sun Microsystems Recruits Partners To Challenge Microsoft's Passport
Don Clark
The Wall Street Journal
September 26, 2001
Sun Microsystems Inc. has recruited 32 other big companies to become charter members of an online identification alliance that is likely to compete with Microsoft Corp.'s high-profile Passport system.
The effort, dubbed the Liberty Alliance Project, plans to set technical ground rules that could allow users of personal computers, cellphones and other products to get access to all kinds of Internet resources by logging on just once.
That's also the stated goal of Passport, and Microsoft last week said it would open up its system to other authentication services devised by rivals and other companies. But many companies are still believed to view Microsoft as a potential competitor in Internet services, or feel more comfortable with standards set by a group rather than a single company.
The alliance's initial members include nontechnology giants such General Motors Corp., Bank of America Corp., AMR Corp.'s American Airlines unit and UAL Corp.'s United Airlines unit; technology-related companies not primarily known as Microsoft competitors, such as Cisco Systems Inc., Nokia Corp., NTT DoCoMo Inc. and eBay Inc.; plus companies such as Sun, Intuit Inc., RealNetworks Inc. and Sony Corp. that more often directly tangle with Microsoft.
Scott McNealy, Sun's chief executive officer, said its customers asked it to help coordinate the effort. "We've only gotten to a small number" of companies so far to ask them to join, he said. "Our hit rate was very high."
Sun and other participants said they hope Microsoft will join the effort, too. Chris Payne, a Microsoft vice president associated with Passport, said it would consider working with the alliance. But he argued that it makes more sense for the group to adopt Passport's proposals, since it has such a head start.
"It feels like a call for a meeting," Mr. Payne said. "And it feels like a call for a new authentication system. That we don't need; there are good mature standards that exist here."
Most everyone agrees on the problem. Consumers now need to remember multiple user names and passwords to find or buy things on the Web. Once users can be universally identified, new services become more feasible, such as wirelessly transmitting photos from digital cameras to film processors, or downloading movies to a moving car on a long road trip, said Jonathan Schwartz, a Sun senior vice president.
Some start-up companies, including ClickShare Service Corp. of Williamstown, Mass., and Philadelphia-based Catavault, have addressed parts of the problem. But identification mainly became a hot topic because of Passport, which claims 165 million members already and could get many more as it is promoted by Microsoft's forthcoming Windows XP operating system.
Many industry executives have expressed concern that Microsoft, through Passport, could get information about other companies' customers. Mr. Payne and other Microsoft executives say the Passport technology won't let it do so, but potential customers still were wary.
"Passport really wasn't a solution to us, the way it was originally presented," said Tim Arnolt, head of technology and operations for Bank of America, though he said he was hopeful that Microsoft would yet join the alliance or make compatible technology.
Sun, while supplying large computers to many companies, was seen as a safe leader because it doesn't plan to develop competing consumer services of its own, said Rob Glaser, chief executive of RealNetworks.
The past history of such alliances isn't very encouraging, however. Many such efforts have been announced in the past -- some designed to counter Microsoft -- and produced very little.
The alliance specified very little of its technology directions Wednesday. Sun's Mr. Schwartz said that is largely because specific industry sectors, such as wireless providers, already have set authentication standards that the alliance must simply adopt. Though it won't produce results in a matter of weeks, Mr. Schwartz said some key standards should be set within a year <<
- Eric - |
