Page III: Sun tries to quell dissension among Java backers while fending off Microsoft.
An open question is how a high-profile technology agreement with Microsoft, announced earlier this year, will affect Java.
"The Java community is being pushed and pulled in many different directions, and that competitive dynamic is undercutting their ability to provide a common front to Microsoft," Whyman said.
The battle between Java-based software companies and Microsoft is far from over. Studies indicate that developers are split between Microsoft's .Net tools and Java-based products for building applications that conform to Web services, a set of protocols that have gained wide industry backing. Java companies are making steady headway in making Java easier to program with better tools and changes to "runtime" software underlying Java applications and tools.
Java has been installed in millions of handheld devices, such as mobile phones, which is a market Microsoft has yet to fully crack.
Sun plays an influential role in the Java industry because it controls the core Java specifications used by other vendors. And Sun provides testing kits to ensure that Java's compatibility so that applications can run on products from different providers.
But in the area of commercial software, Sun finds itself in the role of also-ran, despite having founded the Java industry. In the multibillion-dollar Java server software market, for example, Sun has a single-digit share behind leaders IBM, BEA and Oracle, according to research.
Central to Sun's strategy to gain market share are its new Java Studio Creator tool and a cut-rate, per-user licensing plan for its suite of Java server and desktop products. Sun has signed on some customers to its revamped Java software line, but the full impact of the new pricing scheme, launched late last year, is not yet clear, according to company observers.
Sun has US$5.4 billion in cash and gained another $1.95 billion from wide-ranging legal settlement with Microsoft. But its revenue has shrunk for 12 straight quarters and in April, it posted a quarterly net loss of $260 million, excluding special items, and said it would cut 3,300 jobs this year.
Moving on, with or without Sun
"Sun's weakness is radiating through the rest of the Java community," Whyman said. "Oracle, IBM and BEA aren't going to stand still -- because they can't -- while Sun sorts out its problems."
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