The Rise of JAVA - The Retirement of SUNW
I've spoken before about the value of brand - this post is a good example. And I wanted to follow up with a few more thoughts, and an important shift in how Sun (NASDAQ:SUNW) presents itself to the world - and more importantly, how the world now presents itself to Sun.
Sun is blessed to have built two of the best known brands on the internet. The Java brand, and OpenOffice (and its cousin, StarOffice).
Presumably, you saw the relationship we just announced with 
Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), in which they'll be distributing StarOffice for free as a part of their Google Pack offerings - to put this in context, we're now distributing multiple millions of copies of OpenOffice every week (and that's before you count mirror distribution sites). The combined volumes of StarOffice and OpenOffice generate a user and developer community now accelerating well past a hundred million users - across developing economies, developing companies, and across Windows, Solaris, Linux and the Mac OS. As a software product and a brand (all end user software is ultimately both, after all), growing distribution drives opportunity and awareness for everyone involved - for the OpenOffice/StarOffice user and developer community, and as its shepherd on the network, for Sun.
Wherever OpenOffice and StarOffice travel, more users know and trust Sun - what's that brand or awareness worth, especially among tomorrow's decision makers? It's hard to know exactly, but I'd bet more people know Sun via OpenOffice than know us through datatcenters. That's an astonishing assertion, but with the internet now reaching billions of end users, the number of consumers on the internet dwarfs the number of IT professionals. The numbers are staggering.
But with that said, compared to the Java platform, office productivity is relatively esoteric stuff.
Because Java touches nearly everyone - everyone - who touches the internet. Hundreds of millions of users see Java, and its ubiquitous logo, every day. On PC's, mobile phones, game consoles - you name it, wherever the network travels, the odds are good Java's powering a portion of the experience.
What's that distribution and awareness worth to us? It's hard to say - brands, like employees, aren't expenses, they're investments. Measuring their value is more art than science. But there's no doubt in my mind more people know Java than Sun Microsystems. There's similarly no doubt they know Java more than nearly any other brand on the internet.
I know that sounds audacious, but wherever I travel in the world, I'm reminded of just how broad the opportunity has become, and how pervasively the technology and brand have been deployed. Java truly is everywhere.
Ask a teenager if they know Java, and they'll point to their favorite mobile applications, the video uploader for their social network, or their game console. As for working professionals, I had dinner with a financial analyst a few months ago who said he saw the Java launch experience "a few times a day" when accessing intranet applications - as did tens of thousands of his fellow employees. Daily. Global companies like Google and eBay (and Vodafone and Citigroup) are built on Java, every major PC manufacturer bundles Java upon shipment, as does every mobile phone manufacturer, and tens of millions of developers touch it every day in the world's IT shops. Students learn it to get college credits for computer science, and there are more Java courses on university campuses than we ever imagined. Wherever it goes, Java brings limitless opportunity - to Sun, and to our partners that develop, use or deploy it.
So what's that awareness worth? Ask the question a different way - if we wanted to buy that exposure, to touch tens if not hundreds of millions of consumers every single day of the year, across nearly every continent, industry, geography and demographic - what would it cost us? (If you're in the industry, just do the CPM calculus - the Java launch experience is one of the most pervasively viewed exposures on earth.)
As I said, the number of people who know Java swamps the number of people who know Sun. Or SUNW, the symbol under which Sun Microsystems, Inc. equity is traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange. SUNW certainly has some nostalgic value - it stands for "Stanford University Network Workstation," and heralds back to Sun's cherished roots (in academia). Granted, lots of folks on Wall Street know SUNW, given its status as among the most highly traded stocks in the world (the SUNW symbol shows up daily in the listings of most highly traded securities).
But SUNW represents the past, and its not without a nostalgic nod that we've decided to look ahead.
JAVA is a technology whose value is near infinite to the internet, and a brand that's inseparably a part of Sun (and our profitability). And so next week, we're going to embrace that reality by changing our trading symbol, from SUNW to JAVA. This is a big change for us, capitalizing on the extraordinary affinity our teams have invested to build, introducing Sun to new investors, developers and consumers. Most know Java, few know Sun - we can bring the two one step closer.
To be very clear, this isn't about changing the company name or focus - we are Sun, we are a systems company, and we will always be a derivative of the students that created us, Stanford University Network is here to stay. But we are no longer simply a workstation company, nor a company whose products can be limited by one category - and Java does a better job of capturing exactly that sentiment than any other four letter symbol. Java means limitless opportunity - for our software, systems, storage, service and microelectronics businesses. And for the open source communities we shepherd. What a perfect ticker.
And if you wondered why we picked eight strokes for the Java logo, now you know one reason...
Posted on 09:00AM Aug 23, 2007 | Comments[364]
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Call me nostalgic. Call me old-fashioned. Call me unable to understand and cope with modern marketing. But I do not like it.
In the minds of many people, Java == slow. With all the recent rebranding, the first thing we always have to do is to convince the customer that no, the desktop window manager is not written in Java, the directory server, etc. etc. is not interpreted and slow.
What is wrong with keeping up good traditions? Will I soon have JAVAcsr installed on my Solaris system? Sigh....
Posted by Volker A. Brandt on August 23, 2007 at 09:18 AM PDT #
Will the prefix for Solaris OS package components remain "SUNW"? It wouldn't make much sense for them to change.
Posted by Bill Bradford on August 23, 2007 at 09:22 AM PDT #
What a TERRIBLE idea! When we used "Java" in the name of all our software products a few years ago, customers were confused and frankly just laughed at us-- Java Desktop System was the prime offender, as it mostly uses no Java technology whatsoever. We're still licking our wounds and only just beginning to change the name of JDS now in OpenSolaris. So why use it for a company where most of the staff and products aren't Java-related either?
Posted by Numpty on August 23, 2007 at 09:46 AM PDT #
Jonathan,
I believe that you know, what you are doing. What are the costs of changing SUNW to JAVA?
Posted by Michal Pryc on August 23, 2007 at 09:46 AM PDT #
As a Sun investor I see this as a horrible idea. Not many people know that what the W in SUN stands for, and it really doesn't matter. What does matter is JAVA is more of a limiting factor than this illusion of infinite possibilities, Java is only a single platform and not representative of all of your wonderful products. SUNW allows for more possibles instead of being known as only the Java company. This is a sad day. :(
Posted by J. Dabney on August 23, 2007 at 09:53 AM PDT #
What a waste of money. How do all the people you're laying off soon feel about this? How many of their jobs could you have saved, how much security to worried families, with the money this must be costing Sun in admin fees?
Posted by SW on August 23, 2007 at 09:58 AM PDT #
Stupid move. I am a Java programmer, and I don't see the point of this PR stunt. What? It's to impress those stupid financial analysts? OK, never mind.
Posted by 127.0.0.1 on August 23, 2007 at 10:02 AM PDT #
This is almost as good as that time SGI decided to come up with that great 'sgi' logo - branding madness at it's finest.
Of the few people who do know about Java who are not techies, Java means slow. Painfully slow. And badly written. Assuming they know which Java they have - what's today's version, and what's it called? ME, JRE, JSE?
Is that really the sort of thing Sun wants to be promoting? Who thinks up this stuff?
Posted by Tom Kranz on August 23, 2007 at 10:05 AM PDT #
From your Wikipedia link: "Cantonese speaking people like the number two because it sounds the same as the word "easy" (易) in Cantonese." - hence the number 28 is popular meaning "Easy Fortune". I hope the twins Solaris and Java can together deliver you an easy fortune. PS Nice job on releasing JRuby 1.0 this year - good move. PPS The ticker symbol "RUBY" is also free.
Posted by Kevin on August 23, 2007 at 10:05 AM PDT #
Once again Sun demonstrates their lack of platform neutrality. How is it that Sun can always gush on endlessly about the next big thing and yet miss out on the major changes in IT? Dell once again is eating Sun's lunch and why... because Sun missed the boat on Intel quad core. Once again Sun misses the biggest trend in IT. Perhaps not the most interesting or technically unique trend but the one that involves the biggest volume and most money. Unless you're talking about excuses or grand plans, Sun's a day late and a dollar short. This is year 7 or 8 of Sun's big return to relevancy and we're all still waiting.
Posted by Steve Collins on August 23, 2007 at 10:22 AM PDT #
Jonathan, this is one more indication the board needs to look for someone with REAL ideas to lead a once great company. You're all driving wonderful technology innovative and real engineers designed in the ground. You're just a marketing weenie.
Posted by Justin Cook on August 23, 2007 at 10:26 AM PDT #
I just upgraded to Java 6.0.2 on my Mozilla Firefox, but the default pop-up blocker stopped the download. Luckily I'm an web-savvy so knew what to do. Did your www.java.com site say "A pop-up blocker appears to be stopping your download - do this..." - no it didn't. So you're losing thousands of potential downloads by regular web users every day because nobody did rigorous web site usability testing. Does that sound familiar? PLEASE invest in web usability to improve the online experience you provide in EVERY aspect of your business. Please?
Posted by Kevin on August 23, 2007 at 10:31 AM PDT #
Please forget my hasty post about web usability - I didn't read all your instructions at http://www.java.com/en/download/windows_xpi.jsp?begindownload=true Sorry.
Posted by Kevin on August 23, 2007 at 10:34 AM PDT #
This strikes me as silly. I had hoped it was some kind of joke, but I looked at the calendar, and it's not April 1st. The name of the company is Sun, and it makes a wide variety of products. Java is one of them, and it's an important one. But why pick just one and make it the ticker name? It doesn't make sense. Another commenter already pointed out the previous attempts at branding ("Java Desktop System") which didn't make sense either.
Please tell me it's a joke?
Posted by Concerned on August 23, 2007 at 10:36 AM PDT #
marketoids are ruling sun...
Posted by pkmk on August 23, 2007 at 10:38 AM PDT #
I understand the value, as you see it, of changing the ticker symbol. I don't understand why you cannot rename company from Sun to Java? All the reasons you have given for ticker symbol, are valid for the company name as well.
Posted by Javaphile on August 23, 2007 at 10:44 AM PDT #
Sun once again fails to grasp the big picture. While 'Java' may be better known by the public than 'Sun Microsystems', the perception of Java by the public isn't good, so why associate the entire company with it? Synonyms for Java are 'Big', 'Fat', 'Bloated', and 'Slow'. Are those the terms you want to characterize your company? Actually, as a former employee, I'd say those are actually pretty accurate. Nevermind, sounds like a great idea!
Posted by Josh on August 23, 2007 at 10:47 AM PDT #
Final nail in JCP's coffin?
Posted by Davanum Srinivas on August 23, 2007 at 10:50 AM PDT #
Just imagine Apple Computer using LISA as symbol. Bad idea.
Posted by Fermin Avila on August 23, 2007 at 10:51 AM PDT #
This is the most laughable thing I've heard come out of Sun since the stock tanked six years ago. What a complete and utter waste of time. It's a shame the marketing robots at Sun move forward with pointless endeavors such as this instead of fixing the mountain of serious and important marketing problems that have plagued Sun since its inception. This just confirms my hunch that Sun is going to go the way of DEC and shrivel up and die due to being unable to keep up with the times. Java is a slow bloated ancient system that if you were to actually look at Internet search statistics; you would see the interest is much lower than the other languages available. Maybe instead of drinking and sharing kool-aid you would do well to create a new drink that doesn't completely suck.
Posted by wtf on August 23, 2007 at 10:53 AM PDT #
It's all about marketing finally... the marketing value of 1 single product/line (JAVA) overwhelming the total (marketing) value of the whole big legendary company. It may be a good news for those IT newbie (but heard of Java from time to time), but it also imply the company rely too heavily on 1 single product to generate growth (& profit), & most importantly, this product is still not yet perfect (powerful but slow...zZZ).
Posted by Geoffrey Kwan on August 23, 2007 at 10:54 AM PDT #
As a small Sun stockholder, I think the reasoning is weak and not a good branding move. As a Sun customer, your penchant for naming everything java is confusing. I agree with a lot of others that the money could be much better spent.
Posted by Steven Scherbinski on August 23, 2007 at 10:58 AM PDT #
Smart move. LUV=Southwest Airlines, BUD=Anheuser-Busch. We're in good company.
Posted by David Lee Todd on August 23, 2007 at 11:02 AM PDT #
Your engineers won't like it. Any sensible Techie won't like it.
But sensible techies and sun engineers don't trade on Wall Street enough to make you care. All the dumb morons who are awed by the ubiquitousness of the Java brand, trade on Wall street. And you think its going to make a difference.
You are just a marketing weenie. But I think you are right.
Posted by Alfonso Curiel on August 23, 2007 at 11:05 AM PDT #
Terrible, terrible news. I'm still waiting on the next Sun UltraSPARC Workstation and all I get is a change in stock symbol.
Posted by Glenn Heagerty on August 23, 2007 at 11:07 AM PDT #
Dude. Wonderful. I love the energy you are bringing to Sun. This move is geeky and bold. Way cool. Keep it up. I'd say something more cogent but this is such a cool move that I'm sort of speechless right now. Cheers!
Posted by Patrick Wright on August 23, 2007 at 11:12 AM PDT #
Jonathan,
I am a big fan of your ideas, but this one, I think you are limiting your company's potential to JAVA. What happens tomorrow when the Forte takes off? Will you change the company symbol to FOR or something?
Some things are worth keeping for..
thanks.
Posted by knpandya on August 23, 2007 at 11:14 AM PDT #
How about laying off the useless marketing and hire
some engineers? It is a waste of money to do something that
will hurt the company. Are you assuming that Java will live
forever? This is short-sighted.
Posted by Mike on August 23, 2007 at 11:15 AM PDT #
pathetic. don't you have better things to spend your time on?
Posted by james on August 23, 2007 at 11:22 AM PDT #
I think Steve Collins missed the boat in his post below. Dell is in a world of hurt while Sun stole significant market share from them. Emerging from nowhere only a couple years ago, Sun is now in a #3 spot tie with Dell for server revenue.
Although I'm reminded of the rebranding exercise that Silicon Graphics went through renaming everything to SGI along with their multi-colorful oversized business cards, SGI was a rudderless ship destined for bankruptcy. Sun is much stronger with much smarter management.
Call it SUNW or JAVA... In the grand scheme of things, it won't matter all that much.
Posted by Homer on August 23, 2007 at 11:24 AM PDT #
I am a huge fan of Sun. I have used Java since it was invented. I want you to succeed. But this is the worst idea I have ever heard of. Worst ever! Johnathan, you must be drinking your own kool-aid. Sun is a systems company with storage, chips, servers, operating systems, VMs, middle-ware,applications, services, etc. Java is only a small part of it. The ticker symbol represents the whole company. If it is not aligned with the name of the company, confusion will result. Changing SUNW to JAVA is a distraction, a waste of time and money when there are much bigger fish to fry, and will ultimately cause brand confusion - not clarity. Eat some crow and reverse this decision.
Posted by scott on August 23, 2007 at 11:26 AM PDT #
This must be from the same marketing geniuses that recommended PwC change their name to Monday Consulting (I'm told the same one came up with Orange for the mobile carrier) Thankfully for us Monday was swallowed by IBM soon after and that was the last we heard of it (I hear the PwC partner that led this change of brand name was looking for a job soon after the change was announced and everybody started throwing up in the hallways) Way back in the mid-90s Oracle considering changing just their logo and after many thousands of $$s were spent they punted (good on them.) You've to build your company on your past, you ignoring the past by stomping on the SUNW will not enhance the value of the stock. Sorry this isn't the late 90's when adding a .com to your company name meant a 10% boost in market value. I'm a Sun bigot but Java doesn't cut it, sorry.
Posted by Anantha on August 23, 2007 at 11:27 AM PDT #
Maybe a better ticker symbol would be LOON?
Posted by Department of Renaming Things on August 23, 2007 at 11:28 AM PDT #
I can't believe you did this. I just barely started to believe you guys "got" Linux and commodity hardware.
Java is only shrinking in web popularity, and to do anything to alienate yourselves from the web is really unspeakable.
Jonathan, don't be as out of touch as your predecessor.
Posted by waltervh on August 23, 2007 at 11:30 AM PDT #
Is today April 1st? The earlier attempts to rename every product with "Java" in front of it ("Java Desktop System", "Java Web Server", etc) were NOT well received and only resulted in confusion and ridicule, I fear that this will be the same. Java is a great brand, but it does not trump the greater brand - Sun itself. This is lame, lame, lame.
Posted by huh? on August 23, 2007 at 11:33 AM PDT #
Nowadays SUNW is coming out of Mcnealy's mistake of not moving to x86 long back... but again this kind of news, Hurts SUN fans like me.
What else i can say..except Wish you(JAVA) all the best - Which is trying to leverage psychological JAVA advantage of Human thinking.
Posted by Sai on August 23, 2007 at 11:34 AM PDT #
I agree with scott's post above. I work at Sun and have seen the reaction of several Sun employees. Nobody feels that JAVA represents what we do and the services and products that we offer better than SUNW. Sun has been around for a decades and SUNW ties back to the historical beginnings of the company and closely matches the company name. Java is an excellent programming language, run time, "enabler", etc., but please let Sun stay SUNW. The other posts along the lines of "Sun is now run by marketing drones" echo another sentiment this change is bringing about. I hope this decision can be reversed.
Posted by Anonymous Sun Employee on August 23, 2007 at 11:37 AM PDT #
Gee, I would have preferred FORTRAN
Posted by rchrd on August 23, 2007 at 11:40 AM PDT #
This move ranks right up there with Hewlett Packard changing to HP and SGI changing the cube logo to sgi.....in other words New Coke Fiasco!
You want to shake off Sun's tired marketing message - try introducing new class of products besides servers, storage and switches.
Posted by Dev Mazumdar on August 23, 2007 at 11:43 AM PDT #
I think it is a good idea.. It was a horse race between us and Starbucks. Looks like Sun won.
I wonder if the trend is going to be Apple is going to be MAC or more likely IPOD? Microsoft will be BUGS (oops).
Posted by Jonathan H. on August 23, 2007 at 11:44 AM PDT #
Most of these comments are missing the point. What is being announced here is not about changing what the company does or who they are. It is about changing the ticker symbol that the stock trades under. That's it. Sun has strong brand awareness in Java. Why not leverage the brand in as many places as possible. I like it!
Posted by Kyle on August 23, 2007 at 11:45 AM PDT #
"But we are no longer simply a workstation company, nor a company whose products can be limited by one category - and Java does a better job of capturing exactly that sentiment than any other four letter symbol. " is the money quote ... and the one that points out the utter stupidity of this move the best.
If Sun's products cannot be limited by one category, they WHY ON EARTH is Sun using a ONE CATEGORY ticker symbol to define itself in the financial market? Why NARROW the scope to Java?? We're the dot in ... no, wait ... We're Eco ... oops, I mean ... We're all about web 2.0 ... umm ... " Sun has ADHD at the highest levels, and the monkeys have taken over the zoo.
No wonder stock price stays at sub-$5 forever, the market knows that until this company is run by some guiding principle other than a wet finger in the wind, it's going nowhere, fast.
Posted by 204.153.12.51 on August 23, 2007 at 11:45 AM PDT #
Most of these comments are missing the point. What is being announced here is not about changing what the company does or who they are. It is about changing the ticker symbol that the stock trades under. That's it. Sun has strong brand awareness in Java. Why not leverage the brand in as many places as possible. I like it!
Posted by Kyle on August 23, 2007 at 11:46 AM PDT #
Jon, you can't be serious. I had to look at the calendar
to make sure it's not April 1.
There is so much more to Sun than Java. You are about to
damage even more, our already fragile confidence.
This simply makes no sense.
Alan
Posted by Alan Monday on August 23, 2007 at 11:47 AM PDT #
Great, that's just what me need. Not content with labelling products that have nothing to do with Java with that tag (Java Desktop System anyone?), they've now gone and changed their stock ticker so it is equally nonsensical. Can we expect Solaris packages to change to using JAVA prefixes as well? Now that really would be confusing!
Also, what have all of the big Sun adverts on ZDnet.com etc been about? Are Sun suddly going to rebrand everything with Java? Is Sun going to change its name to Java? Now that really would be madness!
Posted by Andrew on August 23, 2007 at 11:52 AM PDT #
I've used Sun products since the 1980s. This move disappoints me.
Sun is more than just Java, and Java is less important than you appear to believe that it is. This move is not going to help the company, and raises concerns about the judgment of management. I was happy to see you replace Scott McNealy, because McNealy was prone to making completely ridiculous speeches, and he was never more ridiculous than when he advocated Java to the exclusion of everything else.
Posted by Joe Buck on August 23, 2007 at 11:52 AM PDT #
Oh... my... god... As a longtime Jonathan Schwartz fan this is unbelievable to me. Java ????? Java has none of the engineering, stability and elegance creds Sun as a company has. For me Sun stands for creativity, ingenuity and engineering excellence way, way, way beyond Java !! Java is just a tiny piece of that. Sun is Andy Bechtolsheim and his unique designs, Sun is Solaris, Sun is things like Dtrace and zfs. Is also Jonathan Schwartz and his ability to cut through tech jargon and clarify strategy. And yes, Sun is also Java, but to be honest Java compared to your other technologies has kind of a bad name. I feel you are totally underselling Sun. I don't agree with this move AT ALL. Having said that, its just the stock ticker, though, so if you wanted to boost Java and double up on a bet going nowhere, go ahead, I guess...
Posted by Chris D. on August 23, 2007 at 11:53 AM PDT #
I don't care as long as you keep pumping that R&D into open chips and open code. Java deserves a party, but don't forget to come back and focus on all these technologies. Because you're not the dot in dotcom, you're the first and best open systems company who's just starting to take the wraps off some of the most interesting technology this industry has ever seen. We're waiting and drooling to see what you're cooking in the labs for us and every code scrap you toss our way only makes us hungry for more. We want an intellectual property and patent commons so everyone in the industry can participate in their own way, and you're obviously working to build it for us. Its so close now I can almost taste it.. Would that be fun and interesting to watch it bloom knowing how big a part of it you are and can be? All we need is a little encouragement.. maybe some intros to get us started with the wikis you have placed around these various technologies and video tutorials targeting us geeks? We can take it! :)
Posted by nobody on August 23, 2007 at 11:55 AM PDT #
Why not "OPEN"? -- ya know, other then that acquisition thingie...
Posted by Ed Dodds on August 23, 2007 at 11:58 AM PDT #
April Fools!
Oh wait. It's not a joke.
Generalize. Don't specialize. Or are you guys saying that all Sun is anymore is a Java SDK manufacturer? Sigh...
Posted by Wes on August 23, 2007 at 11:59 AM PDT #
Interesting direction. From an investor's perspective, I don't think it matters. I'll look up your symbol using your company name (Sun) and whatever I'm using will present SUNW or JAVA. Simple. Who cares. But, I think you're heading down a path that's unwise from a marketing perspective.
Java is not the consumer brand darling your legions of marketing employees, consultants and agencies have probably suggested. It's a great technology, and one I use in all my businesses, but it's not consumer oriented. That may have once been a dream when Naughton and Gosling created it - but Macromedia, then Adobe, were far quicker to realize the value designers could bring and that simply having a flexible programming language wasn't enough. For most web-based applications, Java lost it to Flash years ago, and that's ground that's likely impossible to recover. Microsoft's Silverlight even has a better chance than Sun trying to recapture the embedded object space.
I love Java - but don't get drunk thinking it's some magic marketing elixir. Most people will have zero clue of its value - whether it's driving most big traffic sites or x% of the worlds mobile devices. Plus - one or a few bad events in Indonesia could spoil your marketing value.
Posted by David Geller on August 23, 2007 at 11:59 AM PDT #
Please tell me this is an April Fool's joke that's several months late.
Your company's name is Sun, not JAVA. When I see the stock ticker JAVA, I'm going to think of some coffee company, not Sun Microsystems.
While I like everything else you've done, I'm going to say that my gut reaction as a technical person is less than positive.
Posted by Shawn Walker on August 23, 2007 at 12:00 PM PDT #
Beautiful move - no other IT company have a so good name to apply. The Java brand have a great international appeal, and this is the stock name, not company name. This is all about technology as a service, and shows the company confidence on the Internet and the future of the internetworking. If 10+ years ahead some other technology have changed the face of the world a new brand will be welcome.
Posted by andre on August 23, 2007 at 12:07 PM PDT #
Is this serious?
I'm the president of Indonesia :-)
and I demand that Sun pays royalty to me... err.. Indonesian people for using our most populous island name for its products, and now stock symbol
Posted by esutanto on August 23, 2007 at 12:08 PM PDT #
Uffff, I hope this was our past. And it is back :-( After JDS (hopefully Gnome soon) and JES (Sun One was nice) and Java Workstation (never more), we will have Java back everywhere again. Destroying Java brand by using in unrelated things. I hope you are not author of this idea, because your other ideas are very good typically. This one not.
Posted by Milan Jurik on August 23, 2007 at 12:09 PM PDT #
What happens to Sun Solaris?? is it going to be Java Solaris???
By any chance - History added one more fool day
What about the Pride of Working for Sun Microsystems - for me no more
Posted by Sai on August 23, 2007 at 12:26 PM PDT #
Sun has some of the worst marketing and this is just icing
on the cake. Did anyone really consult before making this
decision? This isn't Hollywood where bad publicity is
publicity. Even the reasoning is silly.
Posted by Mike on August 23, 2007 at 12:27 PM PDT #
This is a terrible, terrible move.
Java is what's /wrong/ with Sun. Not its future.
Yes, Java is KNOWN THROUGHOUT THE WORLD -- AS A SLOW, DUMB IDEA from the go-go 90's!
Sun's best assets are Solaris, the UltraSPARC T1, and its superb hardware designs. Except for Solaris itself, which is the best server OS ever, by miles, all Sun software SUCKS and always has and always will.
Java is a virus slowly killing the company from within.
I'm selling my stock -- tens of thousands of shares. Until this move, I thought you were doing alright, My Little Pony. You just blew it.
Posted by Long Term Investor -- NO MORE on August 23, 2007 at 12:28 PM PDT #
I wonder if this will stand the test of time? If 20 yrs ago, we'd chosen to do the same with our biggest brand at the time (e.g. SPARC), would that be representative of all we do today? Who can say what the next 20 yrs will bring?
Posted by Sean Dillman on August 23, 2007 at 12:29 PM PDT #
I've never commented on your blog before, Jonathan, but this one deserves a response.
This is quite possibly the silliest move Sun has ever made. As a stockholder I'm appalled that Sun would waste time and money to do this. I can understand putting the nightmare decline of SUNW behind you, but nobody will be fooled. The market judges you on your products, vision and performance not on your stock ticker symbol. This is a move right out of the Dilbert school of management.
Far better to drop "Microsystems" from the name as Apple did with "Computer". That I could understand.
Posted by Dilbert on August 23, 2007 at 12:30 PM PDT #
Very nice: new trade name but still same low value of shares! I have been waiting for already 5 years that the stock price reach a value of 14 US - as I bought them when I was employed at Sun.
I feel betrayed that Sun takes good money of little employees income for shares, but is not able to give even the same price back.
Well done, Jonathan!
Posted by Patrizia on August 23, 2007 at 12:31 PM PDT #
JAVA symbol will bring luck for Sun.
Good luck Sun!
Posted by Serge on August 23, 2007 at 12:36 PM PDT #
Jonathan, way to go!!! Since you spoke to the interns in Menlo Park, I haven't been able to get this exciting news out of my head!!!
Posted by Mike Coe on August 23, 2007 at 12:37 PM PDT #
I'm sorry, but I don't see how JAVA describes Sun better than SUNW. But then again, I'm not a marketing person nor a teenager whose interests ends with their mobile phone.
Posted by Tomas on August 23, 2007 at 12:40 PM PDT #
First off, It's just a ticker people! It's not like the strategic direction of the company has been changed with one fell swoop. If you like Sun and it's products, etc. buy the stock. Who cares what the symbol is? And if it adds increases brand name recognition to smaller investors who only see the Java logo on their PC, great!
Posted by John on August 23, 2007 at 12:42 PM PDT #
For sure this must be an April-Fools joke, right? Leveraging a brand, sure, I'm all for it. Recycling and diluting a brand name until people are sick of it and it's become meaningless? I have a hard time seeing how that is supposed to be brilliant.
Posted by Terrence on August 23, 2007 at 12:45 PM PDT #
While I agree that the Java Desktop System (JDS) branding created confusion, I think renaming a ticker symbol is different. For Sun to succeed, Java must succeed. Java is Sun's single most differentiaing product.
Posted by Dan McDonald on August 23, 2007 at 12:47 PM PDT #
With all due respect to Jonathan's decision and understanding of where he is coming from, I feel that it is unfortunate that Sun has decided to bet its farm on Java. Being an active Java developer and an avid user of Solaris (and owner of a few SUNW shares), I'd say that the greatest software asset that Sun has is Solaris. Java as a platform, in my view, has a shorter lifespan than Solaris. I would not be surprised if, in a few years, Java will be totally eclipsed by other technologies. The only redeeming value of Java in the long run may be its JVM. The reason why I feel that Solaris has a brighter future is because it is a solid (and dare I say, the best) implementation of the UNIX model. This model, after more than 30 years, is still the best for opearting systems, despite innovations in micro-kernel, object-orientation and other areas of OS research.
I have not even touched upon the great innovations that Sun has been doing in the hardware arena in the last few years. Its change of focus on Java, in my view, is an unfortunate insult to the great engineers at Sun who are not actively working on Java.
Posted by Hering Cheng on August 23, 2007 at 12:48 PM PDT #
That's just completely bizarre; I assume the clever chaps to decided to throw the prefix "Java" in front of all of your software product names (even those that had nothing to do with Java) five years ago are still around somewhere then.
Strikes me as completely the wrong message, and I'm not looking forward to all of the Solaris packages being named JAVAcsu which will be ridiculous.
Very confused.
Posted by Ceri Davies on August 23, 2007 at 12:49 PM PDT #
Interesting......
Is this a sign that JS wants a Software only company? (Java/Solaris/Office.....) And maybe looking to split off the 'MicroSystems'/hardware element?
Posted by TomC on August 23, 2007 at 12:50 PM PDT #
What a waste of time. What if Java loses some of its brand value at some point in the future. Does that mean the death of Sun Microsystems ? I can only think of changing our stock symbol over the years from SUNW to NFS to SRAY (sunray) to N1GE.... With the amount of work left to be done to get Sun being consistently profitable, is this really important to do ?
Posted by Krishna on August 23, 2007 at 12:51 PM PDT #
I think a lot of people are failing to see the bigger picture in this. Personally, I don't believe renaming the ticker to Java is going to change the company alone, but I get it and think its a step in the right direction. I believe what the company needs is "brand awareness". We have always sold to "the system admins" and we all know we sell a quality product. The problem we run into is that there are two people in the purchasing game, the Business Man who makes the final decision for their company, and the System Admin/Engineers which they rely on to guide them. The problem comes down to the Sys Admin saying "OK Mr. Business Man... here are your options... HP, IBM, and Sun Microsystems, Sun is my favorite they are best option when we compare all three" then the Business Man replies, "Hmmm... I haven't really heard of Sun, but I have had this HP laptop I use daily and I love it." So in the end after an argument the business man with the ultimate power gets to make the decision, which unfortunately doesn't mean the smarter decision always gets picked. Bravo, Jonathan... I think this is a decision that puts Sun in the right direction, appealing to the little people who walk by us everyday without knowing who we are is what will win this battle in the end. You never know who the next Joe Schmoe who makes a small website like You Tube is going to be, and we would like to think that he knows who we are before he does his research on who to buy.
Posted by Adam on August 23, 2007 at 12:51 PM PDT #
Why not make the ticker symbol "OPEN." This captures the philosophy of the company more than listing a product name. Just a thought from a fellow marketing weenie.
Posted by Bryan on August 23, 2007 at 12:57 PM PDT #
Silliest thing I've heard. Coming from you, Jonathan, the change from SUNW to JAVA demonstrates a remarkable lack of vision and focus on the products of your company.
JAVA is just one of the products Sun makes, not the be all-end all of Sun's existence.
MSFT not WNDW. AAPL not MAAC/IPOD/IPHN. RHAT not RHEL. And besides, when
Java itself has not really made Sun any significant money, pray tell exactly how
changing your company's stock ticker (which is just a NAME) going to make the
big bucks come rolling in? Sounds too suspiciously like you were acting on the
advice of tea leaf readers or Chinese psychics. What's next? You'll employ feng
shui experts to improve the chi of your offices?
I think this is truly the beginning of the end for Sun. Last nail in the coffin.
Posted by agyat on August 23, 2007 at 01:04 PM PDT #
I'm curious about what sort of research was done that supports the move of changing the ticker symbol.
As an employee and stock-holder, I question the use of any amount of resources for this change. In the face of layoffs, any amount of money spent on the research and promotion of such a change appears wasteful. While I do not hold any sort of degree in marketing or business, I find it hard to believe that potential investors (or customers for that matter) will be swayed in our direction because our ticker is now JAVA.
Please provide us with the research that shows this change and the resourced devoted to the change will drastically impact our market share/stock price.
Posted by Micah on August 23, 2007 at 01:07 PM PDT #
Seriously, you people are this worked up about a ticker symbol? CHILL OUT! It's just a ticker symbol!
And to all of you folks remembering the Good ol Days of Sun and demanding to keep SUNW, welcome to the real world! Sun is is a world of hurt and this is the last of your worries. Stop reading/commenting on this blog and continue working on Rock...we've been waiting a while now.
Posted by Jeff the Great on August 23, 2007 at 01:10 PM PDT #
Java is just one among SUNs' many achievements, Java is NOT SUN. I am still wondering why you came up with such an idea. I really used to appreciate all that you did for sun. I guess i dont anymore.
Again. Sun is much much more than just JAVA.
Posted by Partha on August 23, 2007 at 01:12 PM PDT #
Most people do not seem to understand the long term effects of this renaming. Kids in school and colleges today are the consumers, and stock movers of tomorrow. Making this move now ensures that 5-10 years from now, JAVA brand will propel the company. Kids today understand JAVA better than SUNW. This is ofcourse making a bet that Java will be popular 5-10 years from now, but that is a risk Sun has to take.
This will have zero impact next term, but a huge impact to the long term growth of Sun. Bravo, Jonathan!
Posted by Frank on August 23, 2007 at 01:15 PM PDT #
Change fo logo? Will there be a change in productivity?
Hope the process will not waste the valueable time SUN should use to think of more valuable thing!Because to me its highly uneccessary.
Posted by Albert on August 23, 2007 at 01:16 PM PDT #
Ok so the ticker symbol change may be a somewhat cynical marketing ploy but all the boneheaded doomsayers bleating on about how terrible this is are just as laughable. What does it matter? It's *only* the ticker - which is largely electronic apart from its appearance in docs that get updated and reprinted anyway. Of course, it's always been the prerogative of the fool to point out that the emperor has no clothes...but the emperor is still an emperor and the fool is still a fool.
Posted by Kungsukul on August 23, 2007 at 01:16 PM PDT #
Regarding Homer's comments about Dell: Dell is in a world of hurt only buy only by Dell's standards. To compare Dell to Sun is to compare Hyperion to a satyr. For all Sun's blathering about intellectual property and R&D ad nauseum here an example of the only scorecard that matters:
Profit in Dell's fiscal 2006: $3.6B (that's 'B' for 'billion')
Sun's fiscal 2006: ($0.8B) (the parentheses represent negative profit or loss)
So 5 years(!) after the bubble popped and compared to the company Sun loves to jab with the "commodity" tag which firm is in a world of hurt? It ain't Dell. Dell's a profitable growing company and Sun remains a breakeven (at best), water-treading, social experiment. So for Sun to suggest (as they do at every opportunity) that their R&D is going to save them is utterly preposterous. Dell has crushed them every year for 5 on the trot. Sun's shareholders (of which I am one) need to be saved from Sun's R&D. Dell proves Sun wrong over any time interval. Again, Dell proves Sun wrong over any time interval. It's time Sun admits that trying to lead the market has been a failed strategy. Otherwise, they'll join the long list of other distinguished products/companies that were ahead of their time: Edsel, Osborne, Betamax, New Coke, etc. Prudent R&D is vitally critical. What Sun has done is inexcusable.
Posted by Steve Collins on August 23, 2007 at 01:22 PM PDT #
BRILLIANT ! BRILLIANT ! BRILLIANT !
As a somewhat new Sun SE who left IBM for a more ethical & innovative company, I think this is a brilliant strategic move for Sun.
Why? Well, when people ask me where I work I reply "Sun Microsystems."
To my disappointment, I most always get a puzzled look returned while being asked, "What do they do?" I always respond with "Well, one thing they've done as a computer company is that they invented Java; do you know what that is?"
They ALWAYS say yes, they know of Java! If I get a detailed answer in return, it is usually (1) Java is a computer thing (from my mother) or (2) Java runs on my computer sometimes (from my sister) or (3) Java is a web language (from the Cub Scout next door.)
~*~ JAVA ~*~ Sun's best brand asset! Upon reflection, I'd like to see us move to rename the company SunJava or even just Java eventually!
Consider this from a potential customer's perspective: If you were to Google or Yahoo search for SunJava...the result return set will be a lot more specific than what is now returned by Keywords "Sun" or "Java".
JAVA will never be seen to be unsophisticated & juvenile like the Ticker Symbol: BUD. The Anheiser-Busch slam someone made earlier is totally unwarranted. "Sun" and "Java" as audible words have always made me feel a bit "Saturday morning happy."
NAMES ARE CRITICALLY IMPORTANT TO CUSTOMER FIRST IMPRESSIONS. Example: I always thought that the name "Starbucks" had a great first syllable "Star" but a pretentious last syllable "bucks". Combined with the green corporate color of their signs (and the price of their coffee)...they even sounded greedy! When I first heard of Starbucks...I thought it was a joke name (where I didn't get the joke!). Being my usual sleepy-self in the morning--a friend's request "Go to Starbucks with me" always leaved me feeling like I should be vigilant before someone picks my pocket waiting in the Starbucks line.
SunJava ! Both words suggest brightness, happiness, & comfort (e.g. no anxiety).
Don't worry, be happy! JAVA & Sun brands together are headed for prominance with the general population! A good thing.
- Skip Bogard
Posted by Skip (Harvey) Bogard, Sun Pre-Sales SE on August 23, 2007 at 01:33 PM PDT #
This is a terrible idea. Why would anyone want to change a perfectly respectable ticker to the name of a programming language? What happens when a new language usurps Java? You're left with an outdated irrelevant moniker. I don't get it.
Posted by julie on August 23, 2007 at 01:39 PM PDT #
I love javascript!
Posted by teehee on August 23, 2007 at 01:50 PM PDT #
What a stupid idea. Give away software is NOT an asset. Java is NOT Sun.
Schwartz needs to go work for a startup somewhere instead.
Posted by A Sun Shareholder on August 23, 2007 at 01:52 PM PDT #
I don't get it. Why would anyone want to change a perfectly respectable and easy to remember ticker to the name of a programming language? What happens when a new language usurps Java? You're left with an outdated irrelevant moniker. How ridiculous it would be if MSFT is changed to OFFC or IBM to LTUS.
Hey, it's okay if grandma has never heard of Sun. Only a small subset of the population need access to the high end server market. If you wanted to be known by the public then start making $400 hardware that sells at Walmart.
Posted by julie on August 23, 2007 at 01:53 PM PDT #
enjoy seeing the way SUNW, oops JAVA is going. What i'm really waiting on though is the INTELW (intel workstations) promised in January. Until then the wait is more entertaining as this latest news has turned your blog into what looks like a slashdot flamewar.
I think alot of the techies have confidence in your decisions, keep up the good work.
Posted by phil on August 23, 2007 at 01:56 PM PDT #
What an absolutely terrible idea. I wonder if Schwartz is bothering to read any of these comments? What a waste of company money to change the ticker symbol. Sun does a heck of a lot more than JAVA. Whoever convinced Schwartz of this change ought to be fired. The street is laughing at him.
Posted by Robert on August 23, 2007 at 01:57 PM PDT #
JAVA signifies a strong move to software focus. I believe Java technology is used even where SUN machines are not used. While SUN offers more than software, i think Jonathan's approach is the right one. Now,can we make quantum leaps in JAVA please. JAVA FX is a very good start, but trying to run it on any browser leaves you clueless as to where to download the JRE from.
I've used JAVA from 1.0 and like the language its capablities from start. Actually i prefer Java to C#. Don't think JAVA=SLOW at all, you just have to code right :)
Making Software more user friendly should be the focus along with technology savvy.
- Dhiraj Soni.
Posted by Dhiraj Soni on August 23, 2007 at 01:57 PM PDT #
GREAT NEWS ABOUT THE GOOGLE TIE IN! shame all the focus is on the stock ticker =(
Posted by Phil on August 23, 2007 at 01:58 PM PDT #
Horrible idea. Changing the symbol to an individual product within a company attempting to reach ever larger customer bases with a wide range of products makes absolutely no sense at all!
Posted by 192.18.101.5 on August 23, 2007 at 01:58 PM PDT #
I fail to see the brilliance in this move, but I also fail to see how changing the ticker symbol is a travesty as many other posters have said. It is just a ticker symbol after all. I'm willing to believe that this is a well-researched plan, and that I just haven't seen the light yet. But, ***PLEASE***, for the love of all things holy, don't replace SUNW with JAVA in the software package names! The previous abuses of the Java brand were bad enough. I think I'll cry if I have to run /opt/JAVAspro/bin/cc!
Posted by Daniel Templeton on August 23, 2007 at 01:59 PM PDT #
The "eight strokes for the Java logo" that's a good idea.
"fortune", "prosper" or "wealth"
-HY
Posted by Homer Yau on August 23, 2007 at 01:59 PM PDT #
WTF. Thats the silliest, stupidest idea to come out of Sun's marketing department since the Java Desktop System. And what a long-winded, weak explanation for the proposal. JDS successfully confused and diluted the Java brand and this continues in the same vein. I thought Sun would have learnt its lesson from that debacle. This is an utter waste of time and money. Your blog attracts readers when it reflects the thoughts of Sun's best and brightest distilled into a form that promotes the essence of Sun's brand which is visionary technology leadership. Instead you are turning this into a medium for PR stunts. Please listen to this audience or youre going to turn people away from this blog and from taking your thoughts seriously.
I have to echo the sentiments that Java is only one of Sun's creations. One can argue which one is the most valuable but none is bigger than the company itself. I am not concerned with the risk of associating Sun with the negative connotations that (some) people have with Java. Maybe its because I am biased towards Java having worked on it and promoted it for many years. But having been in the industry for a few years I would be more concerned about the longevity of the Java platform. When things change as quickly as they do in this industry it seems foolish to tie yourself to a technology that could very well be overshadowed by another disruptive innovation. You could end-up looking dated instead of forward-looking.
Posted by smathew on August 23, 2007 at 02:02 PM PDT #
When will Sun require the name of its CEO to be Duke?
Posted by Darren on August 23, 2007 at 02:03 PM PDT #
Jonathan, I have so much respect for you as a great leader, but this is not a good move. Changing the name is a waste of money and I do not want to repeat the people who already commented on this. But I agree with EVERYONE who thinks this is a bad idea and will cause a lot of confusion. You may see the stock rise temporarily but investors are not fools you know. they will find out what this JAVA stock is.
Do you know why the average Joe Shmoe does not know the SUN brand? It's because SUN made a choice to ONLY be a systems company for businesses because they did not want to deal with low margin consumer markets. Why else do you think people know IBM or HP or Dell? A better idea is to create a market for the consumers so you can penetrate Sun into everyone's living room. Create a Sun branded cell phone or a web service that consumers will use. You have billions of dollars and the one of the most intelligent employees working for you. And you can't seem to figure out why people don't know Sun? Think about it. A lot of small startups will only know and start at what local stores sell. And what do local stores sell? HP, Dell, IBM (though they recently sold to lenovo) and no name white box systems. Go for the best buys, tigerdirects, and believe me, Sun will be known. It may be low margin but it is building up your brand.
You should really consider overhauling marketing at Sun because I think they tarnished Sun's image. A company full of intelligent people, amazing technology, brought down by an incapable moronic marketing department. I am not amused.
Posted by Derek on August 23, 2007 at 02:08 PM PDT #
Wow. Reading all these comments brings home to me that there is a lot of angst focussed out there against Sun. Mostly current/past shareholders, I guess.
Posted by huh on August 23, 2007 at 02:10 PM PDT #
I think it's not such a bad idea. It won't make a difference to the investors who know their stuff, but it might attract others who are less-savvy. I think that's the whole idea. But if Java does NOT persist into the IT world of tomorrow, we'll have another outdated and confusing ticker on our hands.
Posted by Siddhartha Kasivajhula on August 23, 2007 at 02:19 PM PDT #
Based on all of the pathetically uniformed and fundamentally inaccurate comments about Java, Sun has a big marketing problem. Changing the stock symbol probably won't change that. Seems like so many people have read one negative article about Java in 1996. I think they would be surprised at how ubiquitous Java is since it became a server side/back end technology.
Posted by eric on August 23, 2007 at 02:33 PM PDT #
The SUNW tag was the perfect one... By tagging JAVA, you are truly limiting the company's excellent product portfolio (whose subset is java). It denotes an extremely limited and lean representation of Sun's global outreach...Agyat is right in pointing out that AAPL doesnt change to IPOD or MSFT doesn't go WNDW (though they have every reason to do that, if they consider an even wider market reach). Tomorrow you may even think of dropping 'micro systems'. In our minds, the Stanford university network workstation will always prevail...
Posted by Sun's well wisher on August 23, 2007 at 02:34 PM PDT #
Steve Collins keeps on going on about Dell's numbers - the truth is he doesn't know Dell's numbers. They admitted they've been rigging the numbers for years and falsifying them. Meanwhile Sun gets recognized as one of the worlds most ethical companies. Even if its only a minor aberration I'd certainly rather work for Sun than Dell. its amazing how Sun's competitors "get away with murder" (look at the millions IBM just paid in settlements with SEC "whilst admitting no wrong doing..." HP spy on their own board and get away with it). Scott and Jonathan have always built Sun on the back of good, solid ethical work and will build Sun steadily back to solid long term numbers on the back of this. The ticker symbol is just a single small positive step.
Posted by Tony on August 23, 2007 at 02:38 PM PDT #
What a waste of money!! How about trying to put your energy into growing revenues rather that this PR stunt. As a long time shareholder, i am appalled. Look at all the companies who were down during the bubble - the ones who survived have their revenues/stock prices go up except for SUNW which is languishing in terms of revenues/stock price for last 5 years. Yeah and some are even back to the pre-bubble stock price (like Ebay)
Dumb Dumb Dumb idea
Posted by BG on August 23, 2007 at 02:50 PM PDT #
I truly hope tomorrow we dont change the company name from SUN to something else that is less sensible and visionary ...
Posted by Sun Fan on August 23, 2007 at 02:51 PM PDT #
Based on the argument presented, the next logical step would be to rename the company Java. I doubt that will happen.
I agree with one of the first commenters on this post that the brand java evokes images of slowness. Java was a great idea in theory, but in practice it hasn't been that successful. The few applications that I use that are powered by Java I find to be unacceptably slow and often unwieldy relative to other apps that use flash, php and AJAX technologies. I say this as both as an ex-DBA sysadmin who administered java based systems and was very happy to replace them with PHP.
That said, my company does one in-house system that is java based and it generally works pretty well and isn't terribly slow - but it has a very modest user base.
Posted by Jon Foreman on August 23, 2007 at 02:53 PM PDT #
Please reconsider. This has to be one of the stupidest ideas I've heard in a long time. I completely agree with the following comment:
> Silliest thing I've heard. Coming from you, Jonathan, the change from SUNW to JAVA demonstrates a _remarkable_ lack of vision and focus on the products of your company. JAVA is just one of the products Sun makes, not the be all-end all of Sun's existence. MSFT not WNDW (or CSRP). AAPL not MAAC/IPOD/IPHN. RHAT not RHEL.
Sun is much more than just JAVA. You are setting the company up for one of the worst marketing blunders *after* the tech dive.
> Dell is in a world of hurt while Sun stole significant market share from them. Emerging from nowhere only a couple years ago, Sun is now in a #3 spot tie with Dell for server revenue.
WHAT!? Boy do you have your facts messed up. This comment is completely ridiculous. Sun is nowhere near Dell, nor in a tie. Please look up the symbol SMCI. There you will find the answer.
It must be true that Sun's demise is not soon a far.
Posted by Scott Barlow on August 23, 2007 at 02:55 PM PDT #
I can't help thinking it might have been easier to incorporate "Sun" into the Java logo which appears on all those Java devices.
I a little worried that the brand change could not only downgrade the Sun name but also dilute the Java brand.
Posted by Phillip Fayers on August 23, 2007 at 02:58 PM PDT #
When I first heard this I was shocked and disappointed.
Shocked because, as a Sun employee, I thought we deserved a heads-up before it was public (still waiting for an update on why that did not happen)
Disappointed because I felt it was sending a message to lots of loyal Sun employees that "the hard work you have done to make Sun relevant in the marketplace has not been enough, and we need to change stock symbols so that people can find us"
Having read the earlier comments, I now feel OK - the company is still Sun. How many people "discovered" Sun because its stock symbol was SunW = 0. How many MIGHT discover us because of the linkage with JAVA = >0. That's enough for me. Don't get the company's name and reputation mixed up with the stock symbol - that's a mistake I was making, and now I'm over it.
Posted by Paul D on August 23, 2007 at 03:01 PM PDT #
Jonathan, are you stupid?
Sorry, I had to ask. This is such an incredible dump move. You really want to piss of your loyalest customers? It is not these stupid teenager who barely can spell "cell phone" who buy Sun gear. It's us. This change sends a clear message to us: Sun no longer cares about hardware. Sun is now about big, fat, bloated Java junk only. Ironically this is happening at a time when Sun is a the brink of royally fucking up Java with the new features for the upcoming Java 7 spec.
Sun has moved from impressing with quality to impressing with marketing gunk. Excuse my while I started to check what HP has to offer.
Posted by 127.0.0.1 on August 23, 2007 at 03:02 PM PDT #
Horrible. Stupid. Terrible. Appalling.
Wretched. Miserable. Worthless. Dopey.
How's that for eight reasons...
Posted by Darren on August 23, 2007 at 03:12 PM PDT #
It seems that many people find the name change to be superficial. And at least one person says that Solaris (not Java) is Sun's most important asset. I disagree on both counts.
First, you have to consider the value chain. The lowest layers of computing (i.e. the hardware and the operating system) have become commoditized. Like it or not, there is too much competition out there for Sun to base its business on those things. You can't maintain a competitive advantage by selling a commodity product. You have to focus higher up. I think every vendor (with the exception of Dell) has recognized this idea.
Second, Java is an extremely well-known brand name around the world. People who don't even have a computer know what it is. It runs on phones, embedded devices, even on Blu Ray DVDs. Its the most visible thing Sun owns.
And third--as a previous poster said--its not us technology guys who need to know who Sun is. *We* already know. Its the purchasing agents, company execs, and stock traders (large and small) who need to know.
So I think its a GOOD THING to change the stock symbol to something more recognizable. In a flat world (i.e. Thomas Friedman's book), its smart to capitalize on what is uniquely yours.
Posted by Chris Freyer on August 23, 2007 at 03:12 PM PDT #
I'm a big fan of Sun. I liked the recent Solaris moves. But this renaming thing is another incredibly bad marketing idea, as many other people suggested above.
It's amazing how sharp the contrast is between the great engineering at Sun and the incredibly bad marketing. I've not known anyone to like all the renaming of products, including the famous laughable Java Desktop System that had nothing to do with Java.
Not to mention many other uninspired product renaming moves throughout last years - I believe the middleware suite changed names
at least 3 times.
Shake-up those marketing guys and make them come up with a decent idea. If you want to make money out of Java figure out a way to sell app-servers, get service subscriptions or whatever, don't rename the company ticker symbol, that's plainly pathetic.
Posted by Vlad on August 23, 2007 at 03:18 PM PDT #
'm a big fan of Sun. I liked the recent Solaris moves. But this renaming thing is another incredibly bad marketing idea, as many other people suggested above.
It's amazing how sharp the contrast is between the great engineering at Sun and the incredibly bad marketing. I've not known anyone to like all the renaming of products, including the famous laughable Java Desktop System that had nothing to do with Java.
Not to mention many other uninspired product renaming moves throughout last years - I believe the middleware suite changed names at least 3 times.
Shake-up those marketing guys and make them come up with a decent idea. If you want to make money out of Java figure out a way to sell app-servers, get service subscriptions or whatever, don't rename the company ticker symbol, that's plainly pathetic.
Posted by Vlad on August 23, 2007 at 03:32 PM PDT #
Sure looks like Sun Sigma is solving the big problems at Sun these days!
Ba