Repost: Article on SUNW by M2
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>>Sorry if this is all completely old stuff. Made a good summary IMO of surrent things going on at SUNW. T.<<
-SUN MICROSYSTEMS: Sun unveils plans to grow desktop market at expense of Compaq, H-P and SGI
Presswire - January 14, 1998 15:53
SUNW V%M2 P%M2PR
M2 PRESSWIRE-14 January 1998-SUN MICROSYSTEMS: Sun unveils plans to grow desktop market at expense of Compaq, H-P and SGI (C)1994-98 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD
-- Sun offers 31 percent greater performance than Compaq at lower price
In a move designed to capture new growth within the $19 billion market for high-end PCs and powerful workstations[1], Sun Microsystems, Inc. today unveiled sweeping innovations to its award-winning power desktop line to allow the company to aggressively grow market share at both the low-end (less than $5,000) and high-end (more than $15,000) of the workstation market. By tapping its expertise in high-performance system design, Sun was able to bring advanced workstation and graphics technologies down to new price points. The highlight of today's announcement is the attention-grabbing Darwin desktop line which sets a new low price point for workstation functionality, starting at $2,995[2]. Sun also unveiled sizzling new graphics capabilities, as well as the fastest workstations in its 15 year history, ideally positioning the company to take market share away from rivals Hewlett-Packard and Silicon Graphics at the high-end of the market.
Sun's spearhead for rapid expansion into the "personal workstation" space is its Ultra 5 and Ultra 10 workstation line, which combines the ability to run sophisticated graphics and high-performance UNIX applications alongside web-based, Java-based and Microsoft Windows -based personal productivity applications - at a price that is lower than comparable PCs. For example, the new Ultra 5 desktop provides up to 31 percent greater floating point performance than the Compaq PW 5100 at a lower price[3]. The Darwin line is designed to appeal to the growing base of desktop users who are clamoring for more power and reliability. When coupled with new accelerated graphics, the Darwin systems will allow Sun to better address the needs of the rapidly growing base of digital content creators.
Sun Adopts PC Manufacturing/Ordering Model to Achieve Lower Costs
The aggressive price points of the Darwin systems - beginning at just $2,995 - are made possible by Sun's move to PC manufacturing practices, which combine Sun's highly integrated VLSI system design technology with PC-style volume manufacturing. Sun leverages the industry standard componentry and the common supply chain of the PC industry and applies its expertise in high-performance computing design and rigorous quality manufacturing to keep the power desktop performance, while achieving a PC price. Sun also announced new web-based ordering services for U.S. customers to configure, purchase and view order status of its low-end Darwin systems.
Pushing into New Markets
Sun is unleashing a two-pronged strike to expand its potential market opportunity and is targeting Compaq and other personal computer vendors at the low end, and SGI and H-P at the high end. Posing a formidable threat to the high-end, Sun today introduced its most powerful workstation ever: the Ultra 60 multiprocessing system. With this announcement, Sun intends to overtake SGI's market share in the $25,000 and up workstation market, estimated at approximately $3 billion in 1996.[4] Sun's new price/performance levels push the limits of SGI's technology; for example, the Ultra 60 Elite 3D system offers up to 37 percent greater CDRS graphics performance (a measure of 3D rendering performance) than the SGI Onyx Reality Engine II at one fourth the price. The Ultra 60 workstation, along with selected mid-range systems, are available via a new Configure-to-Order (CTO) direct-ship program offering customized technical workstations at no additional charge.
According to Ed Zander, president of Sun Microsystems Computer Company: "Today, Sun reinvented its desktop family of systems. At the low end, we have erased the belief that a reliable, high-performance workstation costs any more than an NT PC. At the high end, we are making the concept of a $50,000 graphics workstation a thing of the past, since our new graphics desktops are affordably priced, yet powerful enough to compete with the graphics and visualization machines long associated with SGI."
Trade-In Program Lures PC, Macintosh and Competitive Workstation Customers
As part of its aggressive move into new desktop markets, Sun is announcing a worldwide trade-in program designed to ensure investment protection for existing Sun customers and to entice new customers currently using PCs, Macintoshes and competitive workstations to the Sun platform. Its new "Jurassic-Back," "Mac-Back" and "Paq-Back" trade-in promotions[5] are designed to lure customers of Silicon Graphics, Apple Computer and Compaq (and other PC vendors), respectively, to the price, performance, application and speedy graphics advantages of Sun systems.
Microsoft Windows 95 Application Availability -- Plus Advantages of Solaris Environment
Sun is offering technology to allow its workstations to run the most popular Microsoft Windows 95 applications alongside Solaris applications. Consequently, in addition to running PC applications such as Microsoft Office, users can run the more than 12,000 Solaris applications, which offer proven UNIX reliability/uptime and can handle larger data sets and deliver faster real-world modeling capabilities than the PC Microsoft WindowsNT environment. In a related announcement, the top technical ISVs (independent software vendors) have agreed to equal pricing for their Solaris and NT applications of equivalent functionality.
To better serve the needs of the personal workstation market, Sun has taken many of the most powerful UNIX capabilities appreciated by technical users and provided graphical interfaces so that new UNIX users can be immediately productive.
Sun's 15-year legacy in workstation innovation gives the company a distinct edge over newcomer PC rivals running Microsoft Windows NT. As reported in a Computerworld article (7/28/97), "UNIX is likely to remain more scalable than NT for at least the next five years." The Solaris operating environment is the only operating system that scales across an entire enterprise - ranging from sub-$3,000 workstations to $1+ million mainframe-class servers -giving customers seamless application compatibility to ensure investment protection. And unlike 32-bit personal computers, Sun workstations are 64-bit systems and include a design philosophy that incorporates high-performance networking and graphics into the heart of its systems. As a result, Sun workstations offer lightning-fast I/O (up to twice as fast as PCs) and 3-D graphic capabilities at price/performance levels unattainable on PCs.
New Services For The Desktop User
An innovative new service offering called SunClient support gives price-sensitive customers a new option of selecting only the type and amount of coverage needed. The broad and flexible SunClient support surpasses service offerings from Compaq. For example, Compaq is reported to offer a post warranty on-site repair contract for U.S. $780/year (provided by DEC) for its Personal Workstation 6000[6], while Sun offers a comparable contract for its Ultra 5 workstation at U.S. $276/year.
For specific pricing and availability information for products mentioned in this release, see corresponding product releases (dated January 13, 1998).
About Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision, "The Network Is The Computer," has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc., (NASDAQ: SUNW), to its position as a leading provider of hardware, software and services for establishing enterprise-wide intranets and expanding the power of the Internet. With more than $8.5 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in more than 150 countries and on the WorldWide Web at sun.com.
Footnotes:
1.International Data Corporation, May 1997
2.Without monitor
3.SPECfp95
4.International Data Corporation, 1997. Representing the 1996 Worldwide Traditional Workstation Market. Total revenues in the greater than $25,000 segment are $3,076,600,000.
5.More information on Sun's competitive trade-in program is available via the World Wide Web by typing sun.com at the URL prompt.
6.Dataquest, 1997
Sun, the Sun logo, Sun Microsystems, Ultra, Solaris, Java, SunClient, and The Network is the Computer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries, exclusively licensed through X/Open Company, Ltd.
CONTACT: Joanne Sperans Hartzell, Sun Microsystems Tel: +1 650 786 5404 e-mail: joanne.hartzell@sun.com Kristin Knudsen Thomas Associates Tel: +1 650 596 2700 e-mail: kristin@thomaspr.com
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