Christina Aguilera will hold Java cellphones in ads.
--QS
Sun Microsystems Boots Up Blitz
To Create 'Java Powered' Loyalty
By DON CLARK
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Java powered sounds like a recipe for caffeine and jitters. But Sun Microsystems Inc., a Silicon Valley icon with a lot to worry about lately, thinks the phrase has an upbeat, encouraging sound for consumers.
The computer maker this week will begin gearing up its first major marketing campaign aimed at consumers, hoping to turn its Java programming technology into a household word. Sun will launch advertising, a modified logo and a Web site -- complete with pop star Christina Aguilera holding a cellphone that plays Java-based games.
Java, used to write software that works with computer networks, has become commonplace in smart cards, television set-top boxes, server machines and, especially, mobile phones -- where Sun expects unit sales to reach 267 million this year, easily topping personal-computer volume. Phone users, particularly in Japan and Europe, already see a Java logo on games they play, but Sun wants to get more consumers to ask for Java-based products by name, in part to ensure Java dominates the cellphone market and leaves rival Microsoft's phone software on hold.
"What we would like to create is demand for all things Java," says Ingrid Van Den Hoogen, a Sun senior director of marketing.
The campaign is another example of "essential ingredient" marketing, a trend largely inspired by the way Intel Corp., Santa Clara, Calif., promoted its once-obscure chip technology with its "Intel Inside" joint advertising program. But Sun's effort, to be discussed at its annual JavaOne trade show this week, is unusual in several respects.
For starters, in the past Sun limited its marketing of Java to industry professionals. Sun first introduced Java in 1995, originally hoping it would inspire new Internet-based software that would help break Microsoft Corp.'s hold on the PC market. But Java failed to have a big impact in PCs, in part because of Microsoft's aggressive efforts to blunt demand for Java products. Microsoft's moves against Java, part of a larger industry battle with rivals such as then-browser maker Netscape, ultimately became target of government antitrust litigation and a still-pending suit against Microsoft by Sun.
Java also is a technology driven by a crowd of companies, not just Sun. Competitors such as International Business Machines Corp. and BEA Systems Inc., as well as makers of consumer electronics and other devices, sell Java-based products and help steer the evolution of the technology.
[Photo of Chirstina Aguilera holding a cell phone.]
Sun, moreover, makes little money from Java directly. The Santa Clara, Calif., company mainly sells big servers to corporations. Where Intel can get hundreds of dollars for each PC sold with one of its microprocessors, industry executives say that a Java-equipped phone gives Sun a royalty of only pennies.
Java, indeed, is not so much a product as it is a way of writing software. It includes a language for writing programs and a separate piece of code, called a virtual machine, to play them. Where programmers typically have to rewrite software for different kinds of hardware, a Java program often runs on any device loaded with a virtual machine to play it.
Sun still believes it can benefit by driving the use of Java-based devices, generating demand for Sun servers and infrastructure software needed to manage them. If nothing else, the spread of Java could slow archrival Microsoft from expanding into products such as phones and set-top boxes.
"We may have lost the battle but there is a good shot that we will win the war," says Jonathan Schwartz, Sun's executive vice president in charge of software.
Microsoft has a weapon of its own, a rival software-development technology called .NET that emerged around 2000. "We rarely run into a customer that is an all-Java shop -- they are almost always a mixed environment," says George Paolini, vice president for Java solutions at Borland Software Corp., which sells tools for developing programs using both Java and .NET.
Sun's war chest is limited. The company has had declining revenues and several money-losing quarters since the Internet bust dried up demand for its servers.
Sun isn't disclosing exactly how much it will spend on marketing, but says it will allocate 50% of its advertising budget to Java for the fiscal year beginning in July. Mr. Schwartz vows to marshal Java backers to collectively spend $500 million on marketing the technology, but isn't identifying contributors or their commitments yet.
Java enjoys brand identification already. The company surveyed consumers in a number of countries and found 85% were aware of Java, though only 20% understood what it was, Ms. Van Den Hoogen says.
To help broaden that recognition, Sun is drawing up plans for print and billboard ads that will begin appearing in late September, featuring products that are "Java powered." It will promote an overhauled consumer Web site, Java.com1, that will catalog Java-based game software and other products. It is also updating the Java logo -- a cup of coffee with steam-rising from it -- to add a sleeker look that will go with a program to encourage companies to indicate products are powered by Java.
Companies expected to talk about their own Java-based products or initiatives at the JavaOne show in San Francisco include Intel, Oracle Corp., Motorola Inc. and SAP AG. Palm Inc., the hand-held computer maker, is announcing plans to begin selling its Tungsten models with Java software supplied by IBM, which will enable Java programmers to develop software for Palm hardware, says Jonathan Oakes, Palm's senior director of software strategy.
The direct payoff for jumping on the Java bandwagon is a matter of some debate. Electronic Arts Inc., the big entertainment software maker for example, has a popular online-game site that is based on Java, but has shied away from games for cellphones because of the small revenue potential and difficulty of producing sophisticated software for the devices. "Our position is that wireless gaming is going to be very very big -- but we'll all be flying jetpacks to work when that happens," says Jeff Brown, EA's vice president for corporate communications.
But Sun executives say cellular-service providers, at least, appear to be making substantial revenues from downloaded Java games. Many mobile-phone customers of Japan's NTT DoCoMo Inc. and Britain's Vodafone Group PLC play Java games, which tend to be relatively simple programs in the tradition of Tetris or PacMan. Motorola and Nextel Communications Inc. have a Java-based service that sends daily messages to fans of Ms. Aguilera.
As for what financial incentives might be offered for companies to add Java branding, Sun isn't saying. "Everything is being considered," Ms. Van Den Hoogen says.
Write to Don Clark at don.clark@wsj.com2 |
