This is just the beginning - Here comes Java!
This quarter will see first significant revenues from Symantec's new killer apps, Visual Cafe & Visual Cafe Pro. Symantec already had the lead in Java development tools with Symantec Cafe. Their two new Visual products are receiving rave reviews & awards from the likes of InfoWeek, PCWeek, Java Developer, Byte and Comdex. (see www.symantec.com for verification. Symantec is beating the Sun (inventor of Java)and Microsoft Java development entries in just about every review. These products have just started shipping in last 30 days -- they were in beta, previously, so generating no revenue.
The Symantec products are widely considered the first really serious, mature Java development products, and even though there was a lot of Java hype last year, 1997 is when you'll start to see serious work at major companies using Java.
The Pro version which includes database connectivity (JDBC) and support for a new component architecture, "Java Beans", sells for $500, which is a price point higher than a lot of their other products, allowing for significant leverage. Professional developers will be upgrading to this in droves. I'm a developer, have used the beta, and my company has a few dozen of these on order, with many more planned.
And of course we've all seen how companies with a strong Internet component tend to be valued. I'm going to stick with the shares I have and buy more on any weakness over the next 60 days, until this begins to dawn on people. |
