SINGAPORE--Being controversial helps Sun Microsystems stand out in a highly
commoditized technology market, CEO Scott McNealy says.
"I can't worry about skepticism. If there's no controversy, and everybody
buys into our ideas and follows them, there is no chance of making money,"
McNealy told reporters at a press briefing following his public address
here Wednesday.
"The question is whether we have a controversial and right strategy. If so,
we'll make a lot of money," he said.
During the public speech, McNealy gave his take on the future network and
debatable developments that will constitute "the next big thing in
technology"--all powered by Sun's products, of course.
He put forward the company's bold N1 and "throughput computing" efforts
under which new layers of software will be designed to better coordinate
and utilize computing and storage power in corporate systems.
In addition, McNealy envisioned a world where handheld devices and Java
smart cards will provide users with secure mobility and ubiquitous access
to the Internet, possibly rendering the present-day PC redundant. As an
example, user identities can be stored in Java smart cards while their
desktop information and applications are saved on the enterprise server.
People only need to go to a 'dumb' client such as a Sun Ray workstation,
slide their Java cards through and they will be able be retrieve their
desktop, McNealy said. This way, people are not bound to their terminals,
and in instances like an office move, no tedious reconfiguration is necessary.
Unlike PCs, which house their own processors, Sun Ray desktops mostly rely
on a central server to do most processing tasks. They are equipped with
smart card readers for user authentication.
While the concept of having an all-in-one card may seem far-fetched for
most countries, McNealy feels it could be feasible in a small but
technologically advanced state like Singapore.
"This is probably the only place on the planet to be able to realize this
Java card vision," he said.
Describing Intel's Itanium chip as a "serious disaster from a very good
company," McNealy confirmed plans for the launch of a new Sun
microprocessor next year. Dubbed Niagara, the new processor will come with
eight processor cores that can handle four instructions each, he said.
McNealy left Singapore last night to continue the Australian and Indian leg
of his Asian tour, where more jibes against rivals like Microsoft and Intel
can be expected.
CNET Asia's Winston Chai reported from Singapore.
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