I was blindsided by the dismal quarter results like, I presume, many others. I did see one downgrade some time back based on weakness in server sales, but not a peep from Sun; And Sun must have known. I discounted the downgrade based on the perceived optimism coming from Jonathan's blog and the numerous press releases.
It seems to me that we simply don't get the detail of info we need to gauge how well Sun's business model is working. For example, we get constant feedback on how many zillions of new users downloaded Sun's free software, but no quantitative info on, say, what portion of these users then paid for Sun technical support, and how much, on average, they paid. Or in short, the money payback for all the free stuff. If we were privy to this, perhaps we could get a bare gist of what is happening, and a sense of whether Sun's business model is working. Very frustrating. |
