Was Sun right all along? Is our common perception of this mammoth organization as a bumbling giant with absolutely no consumer marketing skills a deception? Was Microsoft right to be afraid, really afraid, of Java?
I was perusing JSR 257, also known as the Contactless Communication API page, when it suddenly occurred to me that all the Java tech from those hyped-up marketing blurbs out of Sun several years ago were quickly leaping from the dominion of hype to the cold reality of today. The idea came when I read about a use case for this new JSR, wherein consumers can use their cellphones (or handhelds) to scan RFID tags or bar codes and find information about the tagged products. Why, the idea was so simple and powerful that I was struck with wonder.
Here’s my take on the Sun agenda:
First, tie Java to one of the largest technological paradigm shifts of the century by introducing “applets” and snagging a large developer base. This had the effect of marshaling developer and popular support for what is basically a programming language - an amazing feat if you stop and think about it.
Second, allow the applet and other desktop initiatives to flounder (after accomplishing the goal of popularizing the platform) while concentrating on server-side Java, which ties better to Sun’s drive to promote its own server-based products. This is a clever ruse on Sun’s part, as it really does not care a whit about Java EE, especially after IBM garnered most of the benefits of server side Java. For the most part, this was done to confuse IBM, Microsoft, and other competitors, who pointed and laughed at Sun’s bumbling efforts to popularize its line of products via Java, not knowing that this ruse was meant to cover Sun’s most audacious agenda.
Third, and this is the cornerstone of their plan, sprinkle Java into the fastest-growing technological gadget in recent history - the cellphone, and use this point to branch out into every consumer device possible. By showing the world that Java could successfully unite and empower an entire industry, Sun paved the way for more incursions into other consumer products, using the greed of other companies as the engine of growth.
The plan is simple my friends: Sun dreams of a day when Java IS the network - a vast interacting net formed by the presence of Java apps (and the JVM) in almost every mass-market consumer device - from smart cards, to mobiles and handhelds, to set-top boxes, to DVD players and other appliances.
Imagine a world where consumers use Java apps in their cellphones and BILLIONS of other mass-market devices as conduits to an information “highway” far vaster and more intricate than the server to PC relationships so dominant just a few years back.
In fact, there’s no need to imagine this - Sun already beat you to it.
PS. The famed SF author Vernor Vinge postulates a world which has “moved on” after increasing computerization results in an explosion of AI - will some Java agent, perhaps some smart automation running the intricacies of a large home or office building, be the catalyst of this singularity?
