Microsoft: Here Comes The Sun
Sun Microsystems Inc. intends to transform the way everyday computer users do their word processing, spreadsheet operations and business presentations. But a not-so-small software rival stands directly in Sun's path: Microsoft Corp.
In the company's latest challenge to Microsoft's dominance of computer desktop software, Sun Microsystems disclosed Tuesday it bought a small maker of office productivity programs and intends to distribute the applications for free over the Internet, to anyone with a Web browser. That way, users don't have to load bulky and expensive programs directly onto their computer desktop.
But several analysts said Sun will be hard-pressed to wean computer users from Microsoft's overwhelmingly popular Office products, which include Word processing, Excel spreadsheet and PowerPoint business presentation software. Microsoft has sold at least 100 million Office licenses to legions of loyal users, and isn't likely to take the threat lightly.
"It's a direct challenge right in their face," said Kathey Hale, an analyst with the Dataquest high-tech research firm.
Microsoft said it was too early to respond but that it, too, may get into the Web-based application business.
Sun's chief executive, Scott McNealy, said his company's goal was to sell more heavy-duty computers that run Internet software. Moreover, he insisted that the company was not targeting Microsoft, just giving customers what they want. "A lot of this has been written up wrong," he said at a news conference Tuesday.
Still, the announcement is the latest in a series of Sun moves that - with limited success - have tried to encroach on Microsoft's main businesses. A few years ago, Sun touted a new type of "network computer" that lacked a harddrive and didn't run on Microsoft's Windows operating system. The move flopped. Sun also makes Java, a programming language for writing Web software that has met with some success but is not the Microsoft-killer that early backers had expected.
Palo Alto, Calif.-based Sun did not disclose the terms of its new acquisition, Star Division Corp., a privately held software company in Fremont, Calif.
Star Division's package of office software has attracted a small but devoted following of users. But Sun Microsystems hopes to vault Star into the mainstream by transforming the product from an application that mainly resides on people's computers to Web-based software that users of portable devices, such as cellular phones with screens and laptops, can easily gain access to.
Sun is not the first company to try to crack the fledgling market for Web-based applications, though its move is the boldest yet.
Demand for Web-based applications is growing fast as business customers try to cut costs of buying new software, which can run $400 and more a year per desktop computer. Instead of outfitting an entire department's machines, a corporate customer now can buy oftware on an as-needed basis by downloading it off a Web site.
To find out more about the software suite or to download it, click here.