Oracle's Network Initiative - Part Two
zdnet.com
PC WEEK: Is this taking Oracle into a new area?
Ellison: All along, I've said the hard thing about network computing has nothing to do with the network computer. The easiest thing is building the appliance. There will be lots of appliances that access the Internet. What Oracle does is build the technology to help you create and maintain the network.
PC WEEK: But you're also doing the client-side devices as well.
Ellison: At NCI [Oracle's Network Computer Inc. subsidiary] we've been building two client devices--one is a corporate NC, one is a consumer NC, which we call NC TV. The NC TV has been tremendously successful, which will become more and more apparent. The corporate NC has really been eclipsed by the personal computer becoming a network computer, in price and in function. So, that's fine with us. We don't make a lot of money in that business, anyway. Where Oracle makes its money is in providing servers to serve network computers and personal computers.
PC WEEK: Will you get out of that corporate space entirely?
Ellison: We'll do some server stuff for the corporate space, but right now our big focus is going to be the consumer.
PC WEEK: What areas specifically?
Ellison: We'll start with TV.
PC WEEK: What should the government do with Microsoft?
Ellison: It's very interesting. Bill [Gates] says Microsoft has to be allowed to innovate. [That's] one of the most profoundly insincere and duplicitous statements I've ever heard in my life. Bill took an innovative company [Netscape], copied exactly what they're doing and gave it away for nothing in hopes of running them out of business. This is not innovation in technology; this is innovation in business competition.
PC WEEK: How do you police that?
Ellison: There are existing laws that say you're not allowed to use a monopoly, which Microsoft has in operating systems, to gain a competitive advantage in other areas. You can't simply take Internet browsers and glue them into your operating system and say, 'This is innovation.' If that's allowed, then Microsoft should be able to take any piece of software and give it away as part of the operating system. Where does the operating system end? Internet browser? Database? General ledger? Personal finance?
Microsoft would have it that there's only one piece of software in the world-the operating system. And every other piece of software is nothing more than an innovation and extension to the operating system.
PC WEEK: Is Microsoft vulnerable right now?
Ellison: Microsoft has flagrantly abused their monopoly in going after Netscape, and existing laws provide remedies for that.
PC WEEK: How do you feel about sitting in a room doing business with Eckhard Pfeiffer, knowing that after the meeting he's going over to stand up in support of Microsoft and Bill Gates [for Windows 98]?
Ellison: He's not in the software business. Compaq is a customer of Microsoft; it's a Microsoft distribution partner. This is not exactly an objective point of view.
PC WEEK: As an Apple board member, how do you feel about Microsoft's investment [last year] in Apple?
Ellison: It was very important for Apple to gain access to the Microsoft Office applications. I think it's important that Apple be seen now as not a pure competitor with Microsoft but in 'coopetition'--competing in some areas, cooperating in others. Steve [Jobs] did a brilliant job in engineering both the partnership and making sure that for a long time to come, high-quality versions of Microsoft Office applications be available on the Mac.
PC WEEK: Are you pushing Jobs to take the full-time CEO slot?
Ellison: No one pushes Steve. Steve's perhaps the only genius we have in our own industry. He's done an extraordinary job bringing Apple back from the brink. Shipments are going up, the company's profitable, morale is great, we have some great new products in the pipeline.
You really haven't seen Steve's products yet. He picked the best of the [existing] products and made some decisions to simplify things. He really killed about 80 percent of the products. But you're going to see the products Steve originated come out very shortly, and Apple will be back to innovating. Apple's future is in creating digital appliances--low-cost, very easy-to-use computers in the range of $500 to $1,500.
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