There is currently a lot of buzz in the mobile industry around app stores, developer communities, “smart operators” and open networks.
A number of factors are driving this buzz. The most obvious factor is the iPhone and iTunes App Store. Apple has made it enjoyable for consumers to download applications AND provided developers a fast path with a standard model to reach consumers and receive money for their creations.
Internet companies have learnt from the software industry about the importance and relevance of building out developer programs. At Sun we launched JavaONE and the Java developer program more than 15 years ago, building one of the largest developer communities in the world. We understood the value of developer communities very early on and have established strong credibility with the developers. If Malcolm Gladwell’s theory is anything to go by….. we sure have clocked more than the 10,000 hours to be the experts in building and managing compelling developer communities.
Another key point driving developers to a platform has been the “path to eyeballs”. Exposing API’s to developers has been a very quick way and standardized way to give developers that path. When Facebook first published their API’s in their first 6 months developers had built some 25,000 application for the Facebook community members, of which the top 100 had more than 100K installs. Twitter published close to 50 service related API’s…..and look how far their developer community has taken the business. Need I say any more?
So what does
this mean for Mobile operators?
Linking an API story for application developers with a strong App store proposition will provide the operator with a strong differentiator. Not only does this give developers access to network resources with a D2C (Direct to Consumer) offering but it is also something the device manufacturers and software vendors don’t have access to.
Java is one of
the largest developer communities worldwide with developers focused on mobile
client, in the enterprise market and also in telecommunication networks. We
work closely with operators to bring this eco-system of trusted partners and
developer to your network and customers.
This is inherent in our DNA at Sun.
Hi Darrell, I feel lonely when I visit your blog, I have the feeling I am alone...
BTW, this is really sad to read your last post about J2ME...Sun was first but Sun did not made any money out of it.
Sun was too frightened to move outside the basic box moving..
Apple did a fantastic job with a completely proprietary technology. They did in 2 years what Sun could not do in 15 years.
You can claim whatever you want but YOU FAILED ! Java and even more J2ME are failures from the point of view of successfully driving revenue from a great idea. ¨You can hide behind your thumb or satisfy with auto congratulations...but YOU FAILED.
Apple was able to break all rules, impose a device, a technology and drive the fastests growing Data revenu apps for Telco operators and they love apple.
Sun was at some point ready to create an app store for J2ME content, but that was not politically correct and the project was killed inside the egg, that's sad.
Now Oracle is going to own all these good assets...we will see...
The only thing Sun can claim is to have successfully prepared the community, the telcos to move to that technology. That was a fantastic marketing campaign free for Apple.
Posted by Andy on September 05, 2009 at 06:18 PM EDT #
Andy...you're not alone reading that Blog...but you're the one to write such angry comments for sure.
Sun made some mistakes in leveraging some ground-breaking technologies and/or IPs, that's for sure...but comparing Java to Apple services is giving bad time to Sun without too much respect for what such company represented over years.
Anyway,i'm curious to have your thought about "what could have been if...."
Let's play this game then: "what if...if was YOU at the Sun command post?" which strategy you would have been put in place in order to make Sun more profitable? Please base your answer on 10 point max.
I'd like to see if it's only angry or there's some more behing your messages..
Posted by role play gamer on September 08, 2009 at 08:33 AM EDT #
My time is too precious to post angry comments...
That's actually very simple to answer your question in 3 points:
- Listen to your customers.
- Follow the market, because the market decides not you.
- Simplify processes
This translates for Sun in:
1) Customers want to have good solutions= HW + SW + Services.
Sun had/has good HW, fairly good SW but inexistant services.
When I say services I do not mean installing HW and configuring Solaris, I mean real engineers understanding the customer's business and being able to implement business solution based on Sun products and others.
Customers are asking Sun to help them solve their problems and Sun is not capable of answering this basic request.
2) The market is moving very fast and Sun had great ideas, but Sun was too conservative trying desperately to sell boxes. That's good but not enough. The economy has changed. Sun can only speak about these changes, they did not implement them. Storage tech, MySQL, ticker name change and reverse stock split x4 were terrible mistakes. Sun was sitting on top of 7B$ in cash after the dot com era....this money is gone....burned....lost.
This money should have been used to move (think out of the box) to consumer market using the J2ME technology. Sun should have spent this money in TV advertisements to let the world know they are behind J2ME and not Microsoft neither Nokia as most people think. Sun should have implemented its own mobile app store but they just started and never did it seriously because of lack of vision and focus.
3) Sun was about 35 K employees but actually the company could have operated the same revenue with 12 K employees. There is too many employees doing the same thing or doing nothing. This does not mean the company should have been smaller. The company should have been 70 K employees if they were delivering real high value services to their customers. The processes especially for sales are too complexe and revenue recognition killed a lot initiatives.
Today, it is impossible for a Sun partner to build a HW configuration online using a web portal in 15 minutes like Dell and other players offer. Sun is too dependent on its partners and that's good and bad.
The customers and the market decides not you.
Apple understand this not Sun.
I am sorry if my posts can be perceived as attacks, they are not, they are just an opinion among many others.
Posted by Andy on September 08, 2009 at 05:37 PM EDT #
Andy,
reading your text NOW is seeing no anger...anyway i was asking you for 10 points ;-) but by reading your past posts they look like "angry former sun employee" comments sometime.
I guess your analisys is almost true...but you can state all the things you've written TODAY, that things are going the way we know...who knows if paying for TV ads could have been a good strategy at the time the dot com market imploded? Several analysts guessed what the strategy changes for Sun could be the healing pill for Sun's struggling business...but they've failed.
I guess Sun today has still his "magic" inside and the only reason why that company is being acquired is the lack of lobbyst support that several other companies have and have had....and i'd rather prefer an ethic company than a guerrilla one ( i.e. Enron?)
Posted by role play gamer on September 09, 2009 at 11:49 AM EDT #
At least TV ads would have raised the value Sun is acquired today...
To be more serious, Sun is not known well by consumers outside the Silicon Valley...most of the people think it is a Dish Washing Powder company :-(
Advertisement exist to influence IT deciders to buy Sun.
Stock market is also heavily influenced by ads not by reverse stock splits.
Knowing what happened to Digital and now Sun, it is clearly a big mistake done by Scott and even bigger by Jonathan.
Well we can redo history. Without any anger, I think that the value of the original post "smart opetators" is really useless given all above...
Posted by Andy on September 09, 2009 at 12:50 PM EDT #