Google + Sun = a fundamental shift or NC redux?
I know it's a bit "previous" to try and analyse something that hasn't even happened yet, but I thought it might be fun to slap some thoughts down about this, so that I can come back (after 10.30am PST, when Sun and Google are to dis
cuss a collaboration effort of some kind) and see if we're just talking crap. Having talked to the "other Neil" (he's way smarter than I am) below are three completely self-generated (we haven't been prebriefed) predictions about what might be on the cards:
- Google will offer a hosted version of StarOffice, with an AJAX user interface (a la Gmail)
- Google will integrate Gmail, Google Talk into StarOffice and the Java Desktop System (JDS), adding collaboration features
- Google will work with Sun to extend nascent Google services and integrate them into StarOffice/JDS - maybe including an online filestore, or an extended version of Google Groups which provides Sharepoint-like content management functionality.
Of course it might not be any of these - but I suspect that something like one of these things will be involved (certainly if
Jonathan Schwartz's blog is anything to go by).
These companies are intimately intertwined via Eric Schmidt (who held various senior positions at Sun), and both companies (and Eric Schmidt personally, from his time at the head of Novell) are resolutely set against Microsoft as a competitor. With Google on board, I suppose anything's possible (just look at the
market cap - currently 7 x
Sun's - maybe it's a precursor to a union? ;-). But even if the collaborative effort only succeeds as far as Sun's
previous "big idea" effort to outflank Microsoft, it will at least force Redmond to seriously re-think how it delivers value to users in the Web 2.0 era - which can only be a good thing.
