Sun is challenging Microsoft on a new front: the consumer market. Believing its Java Desktop System is "a more effective home and retail solution," the company is negotiating with major retailers Wal-Mart and Office Depot to include the desktop on consumer PCs and laptops.
Sun Microsystems Inc. is embarking on a strategy that challenges Microsoft Corp. on a brand-new front: the consumer market. The Santa Clara, Calif., company is negotiating with major retailers Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Office Depot Inc. to include Sun's Java Desktop System on planned offerings of low-priced consumer PCs and laptops. "You will see our focus trend toward us not visiting the CEO of, say, Goldman Sachs [Group Inc.] and trying to convince him that we can effectively replace the Microsoft desktop on his banker's workstation," said Jonathan Schwartz, Sun's executive vice president of software, in an interview. Instead, Schwartz said, the company plans to attract a different segment of the market, including companies such as Wal-Mart, "to leverage our desktop as a more effective home and retail solution." "We have engaged [Wal-Mart] in a variety of discussions from auto-identification and [radio-frequency ID] tags on suppliers all the way to potentially providing them with a desktop solution," Schwartz said.
News source: eWeek
