Keith,
Which NC's??? The JavaStation is qualitatively different from
other NC's & Winterms.
Well, yes, Java has a long way to go. Another way of looking at
it is that Java has a lot of opportunity to take advantage of
the future of computing.
My theory is that PC makers will never make units as cheaply as
an NC, but they will try to sell features, features, features.
That's ok for the home market of power users, but not so good
for corporate customers who have limited-use requirements for
their computing equipment. The internet also marginalizes the
need for feature-laden PC's, at least to a certain extent. Fat
clients have their place, but so do thin ones.
NC's have already had their intended effect... they have created
a market for sub-$1000 PC's that didn't exist before. You'll
notice that INTC & its resales channels haven't been doing so
well for the last quarter or more.... It's because their gross
margins have been cut drastically. INTC spends $65/processor for
MMX-level technology & sells it for around $85/processor. That's
far short of the $400+ they get per Pentium. Disk driver makers
are getting squeezed too...Western Digital stock just tanked on
their recent quarterly predictions, Quantum is in big trouble, &
Seagate just laid off some workers. There is also a renewed
interest in Unix on the PC (Linux), because it is free.
NC's will always be cheaper, because, by definition they are
simpler machines.
Winterm is going nowhere fast... It's just a dumb terminal. I
understand that Citrix makes some software that helps its
performance. |
