Totally agree (the standard *"**The Oak and the Reed"*<http://www.aestheticrealism.net/poetry/Oak-Reed-LaFontaine.htm>issue: Not being flexible when the strom comes will kill you). BTW: You could have said also: *cough*Banks*cough* :)
On Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 11:15 PM, Reinier Zwitserloot <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote: > > I've received a tour of the sun facilities in the valley, and spoken > to a few VPs, and sun knows what they are doing. The economy sucks, > and, yes, they still get most of their profit from selling big irons, > which is a horrible business to be in this quarter. > > The point is, they aren't clinging to their sinking ship. This is > remarkable; virtually all companies that had a large and reliable cash- > cow that got made irrelevant by technology couldn't even understand > that there could be a world where their product is as out of place as > a pork pie at a bar mitzvah. Instead they dump tons of money in > advertising, spend as much money as they can muster on lobbying > efforts, cry to the government that they are 'indispensable', and > start suing competitors. (*cough*GM*cough*RIAA*cough*). > > Just like amazon had the forethought to move away from selling > information by-the-byte (a clear loser, and amazon gets that, so they > launch S3, ebook readers, and many other efforts), sun is moving away > from selling big iron servers in a world where Moore's law and its > variants are rapidly outmarching humanity's need for the power. Rome > wasn't built in a day. > > It would be somewhat unfortunate if sun has cashflow problems and > needs to sell off some assets to survive their transition. > > I'd be far more scared if sun was rolling in dough but stubbornly > persistent about their market share. That way lies a company that'll > inexorably bleed to death. > > > On Nov 20, 6:16 pm, "andrew.bruce.law" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > Disclosure: I used to work for Sun and despite myself (like Joe I > > think) I still don't want to see them die. > > > > @Karsten. I follow your reasoning if the future is shrink wrapped > > software and you're right, Sun don't follow this. > > > > However, check out Simon Phipps on FLOSS Weekly 39 [1] to see what Sun > > *do* think it is. I honestly think things are changing in the > > marketplace. Just look at the rise of cloud computing, IBM trying to > > change the way it works with Jazz (which I know went down badly among > > that audience but try it out and more importantly look at how they're > > running the development) and MSFT slowly getting more and more OSS > > friendly. Sun might be ahead of the curve too much and die before > > this all comes to fruition (think "the network is the computer") but > > even if this happens I think history might be kinder on them than Wall > > Street is now... > > > > Or perhaps I'm dreaming. ;-) > > > > Regs, Andrew > > > > [1]http://twit.tv/floss39 > > > > On Nov 15, 11:41 pm, Joe Data <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > On Nov 15, 2:01 pm, Patrick Wright <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > > Java, broken out in terms of revenue, has brought in around $220 > million per > > > > year for the last couple of years (no details before that). Not > > > > knowing the costs involved, and just guessing, it seems like a pretty > > > > tidy sum of money, which should more than cover the costs involved. I > > > > think it must also be pretty clear to Sun that ignoring or "letting > > > > Java die" in some way would be killing one of the golden geese at the > > > > company, if nothing else in terms of branding. I can't imagine it, > > > > anyhow. > > > > > It's a general assumption that Sun doesn't make money from Java, other > > > companies do (like IBM or Oracle), and the numbers support this. Sun > > > has an operating system, a database, Java, and middleware and made > > > $124mln the last quarter from all its software group. IBM has > > > operating systems, a database, system management software, and > > > middleware and makes 5.2 bln last quarter (42 times as much, > http://www.ibm.com/investor/3q08/presentation/3q08.pdf, slide 8) with > > > a gross margin of 84.7% (that's pretty nearly a Microsoft Windows or > > > Office margin). Nothing in the IT industry is as profitable as selling > > > "shrink-wrapped software", a business that Sun got out by giving its > > > software away. > > > > > Karsten > > > -- http://www.jfrog.org/ http://freddy33.blogspot.com/ http://nothingisinfinite.blogspot.com/ --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
