Sun and Google collaboration: oh well, you can dream...
OK, so it's not as exciting as many of us might have thought...but it might become more interesting...maybe.
In a nutshell:
- Sun is altering its Java client download/update process to act as a carrier for the Google toolbar (users will have to explicitly choose to opt out of having the Google toolbar installed along with their Java update). Sun will get paid for this, but obviously no-one knows how much - and it's likely in reality to be partly a
quid pro quo for...
- Google is becoming a Sun customer - for server hardware, software and associated services (though again, they're not saying what Google will be buying)
- the two companies have agreed to explore ways of bringing OpenOffice technology closer together with some of Google's services - at some point.
Are there any profound implications of this?
Obviously having Google as a customer will be a nice scoop for Sun. Getting the Google toolbar streamed into to 20m+ Java client downloads per month will be a nice boost for Google, too. But we probably won't hear anything more interesting from these guys until the middle of 2006, is my guess...which is a timeframe that coincides nicely with the planned launch of Office 12.
