SUNW => JAVA

UPDATE: Found this great post on the problems with Java (via df). My experience with Java left me feeling exactly the way he describes.

Ok, the internet was abuzz with the news that Sun was changing their stock ticker symbol from SUNW to JAVA. Does anyone else think this is the dumbest thing they’ve heard in awhile? Ok, most of the internet does, but the important thing to see here is that I also think it’s really, really stupid.

A lot of people know java, sure probably more people than have heard of Sun. Um, so? Is one’s stock ticker symbol supposed to be advertising for you? More importantly, what is the purpose of this? While Sun’s stock prices is pretty low these days is this renaming in hopes that they’ll find more people who in recognizing their stock symbol will buy their stock? Apparently they are looking for people to buy their stock who don’t actually know what the company does or how it makes it’s money and are thus not actually in a good position to decide whether or not to buy their stock, since apparently not enough people who know about the company are.

Moving on. Is Java suddenly a platform that is on the rise? Because here I thought most directly C# and .Net were pretty much killing java on the server side, amongst many other web languages like PHP or maybe even Ruby. Maybe back in the day when BEA and ATG and all those Java frameworks were not busy going out (or gone out) of business, it might have made a very stupid sort of sense. Java on the web? When’s the last time you went to a website and a Java applet fired up? Don’t worry, you’re not going senile, I can’t remember either. When’s the last time you even heard someone say “applet” or “swing” that wasn’t a punchline? Yeah…

On mobile phones? Sure now there’s some platforms that run J2ME, the Java mobile platform. You know why people might be aware of Java? Because it takes so long to load the runtime (or whatever) that Sun makes the handset throw up the Java logo. In what way is that good?

There’s even some desktop apps that are in use. So, ok, there’s people still developing on Java. But here’s the quote from Schwartz:

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).

Does Sun actually think at this point that Java has a bright and growing future? If this was done at Java’s beginning, they could have made that argument, but that is by no means true now. But let’s assume for Sun’s sake, that Java was on the upswing, why does this make sense? Eventually it would peak and wane and then what? Would they change their name again? Should Apple change it’s ticker everytime a new product is popular? Should they have been IPOD last year and maybe next year switch to IPHN?

Moreover does Sun genuinely believe that they can make Java a consumer brand? Make it popular and welcomed by people who aren’t in the tech community? Are they that delusional? If Sun were serious about this they’d be renaming their company Java Inc, like when Apple dropped the computer or Kentucky Fried Chicken renamed themselves KFC. But they aren’t serious about it, they aren’t delusional - I put this in the bucket of desperate stock moves like when Vonage tried to get all their customers in on their IPO. Sun seems to just be seeking out uninformed stock buyers to try and get them to boost stock prices. I recently thought that they had been doing some interesting things and were maybe turning around their fortunes, this desperate move makes me second guess that.

Aug 27th, 2007 · Comments RSS · · · · · Tags: finance · web1.0